Rugby continues to be the sport of choice for hundreds of people with 8504 men, women and children registered with the Bay of Plenty Rugby Football Union to play the game in the region this year.

Rugby is on the up in the Bay of Plenty. Pictured here are young rugby fans at a Steamers signing day.

Nationally a total 146,893 men, women, and children were registered with a rugby union this year.
Official national figures released by the New Zealand Rugby Union show this number of registered rugby players represents a one per cent increase on last year, and a total six per cent increase over the last five years.

Bay of Plenty RFU operations manager Mike Rogers is happy with the growth.
"The region's numbers had grown by 1.3 per cent on last year with a very pleasing 13 per cent growth in the 13-20 year age band," says Mike.
"This is a key age band to ensure depth is developed and is very pleasing given there is normally a decline in this age band.
"Nationally there was a 4 per cent decline in the 13-20 registered players. Player numbers had grown by 20 per cent since 2006."

This places Bay of Plenty as the sixth largest union in the country by player numbers.

NZRU general manager of provincial union and community rugby Brent Anderson welcomed the continued and steady growth in national player numbers.
"We've seen some encouraging increases in player numbers in the provinces, and this is really positive for those regions as we head into a Rugby World Cup year," says Brent.
"We've had good feedback from our rugby community that they want to be involved in rugby, and we want to encourage that participation.
"We do not take it for granted that kids will always choose rugby. It's important that we keep working hard to make rugby attractive, accessible, and most of all, a fun sport."

In other figures released by the NZRU, national coaching numbers rose by two per cent to 10,805, while there were slight decreases in the number of referees (down three per cent to 1935), and administrators and volunteers (down one per cent to 6398).

This compares to Bay of Plenty coaching numbers growing by an excellent 24 per cent. Referee numbers fell by one per cent.
This year Bay of Plenty Rugby Union will spend over $1 million on community rugby initiatives as part of the overall investment in game development.

"As a provincial union we are committed to developing our game, and next year affords us a great opportunity to get people excited about being involved in rugby," says Mike.
"We are very pleased with the growth in numbers, and this is a result of a lot of hard work in developing and promoting the game across the province."