Greg Ansley: Victoria rugby diehards carry their flag high

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Melbourne, as everyone knows, barely recognises the existence of other codes. It has been hyped into its present fever over the World Cup more because there are no other ball sports in town at the moment than true interest in conversion.

Fickle Victorians have filled Bledisloe Cup stands in the past, but only for passing amusement.

In the next few months they will have cricket, the Australian tennis open and the Australian Grand Prix to distract them until next year's AFL season starts.

So after cup fever, will rugby be just another spring fling?

Victorian rugby diehards - a hefty number of Kiwi expats among them - resent the notion that only infidels populate the state's playing fields.

Rugby, they point out, has been played in Victoria since 1888 - albeit choked out for the first quarter of last century by the extraordinary passion for AFL that saw bosses sack workers for playing rugger rather than Australian Rules.

It was a test of the faith: despite persecution, rugby emerged again in 1923 and soon after began producing a healthy number of Wallabies, first among them the late Edward (later Sir) "Weary" Dunlop, revered now as war hero and national icon.

Hence the Weary Dunlop Club, which aims to put the sport well and truly on the state map.

The club makes much of the sport's traditional Australian associations with private schools and privilege and the enthusiasm that ripples through the boardrooms of what remains Australia's largest headquarters city.

Its sponsors include major brewer Carlton & United, Primus Telecom and Canterbury, as ubiquitous in Australia as it is in New Zealand.

With the kind of names that the big end can draw, corporate membership has leapt from about 280 to more than 1400 in the past five years, able to grab speakers ranging from the rugby elite to Australian Defence Force chief General Peter Cosgrove.

The club's lunches regularly draw attendances of 1000 or more, sending a terror up AFL spines.

A key goal is a Super 12 team for Melbourne, and to push along the national union's aggressive drive into AFL and rugby league territory across the nation.

Rugby is already pushing hard into Victorian schools, with 121 now signed up for the ARU's schools programmes.

No one is talking of a takeover, but there is growing confidence the sport will continue to grow after the final whistle blew last night on the Telstra Dome's Cup finale, the France-Ireland quarter final.

"I think that there's going to be a drop-off, but with something as significant as the World Cup there will be a lot of legacy and residual impact," said VRU chief executive Rob Steiner.

"Our junior numbers have doubled over the last four years and I am confident that trend will continue."

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