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Rugby as popular as ballroom dancing in Oz!

Cape Town - Rugby union is officially the 26th most popular sport in Australia with the same number of participants as ballroom dancing.

According to statistics released by the Business Insider website, an alarming 93 000 Australians have given up the sport over the past 15 years, with the number of rugby union players down to just 55 000.

Football is going in the opposite direction, surpassing golf as the most played sport in Australia with 623 000 people playing the round ball code, a rise of 46% compared to rugby union's decline of 63 percent over the same 15-year period.

The only other sports that have taken a hit similar to rugby union are pool/snooker/billiards down 69%, ten pin bowling down 62%, and squash down 67%.

It's an alarming statistic for the Australian rugby union to digest with their Super Rugby franchises winning just six games between them after five rounds this season, with at least one of the Rebels, Force, Brumbies, Waratahs or Reds to be axed from the competition from 2018.

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