China, Australia and the Pacific: How rugby is shaping soft power arms race

Rugby union and league are growing in the Indo-Pacific, as is the investment from central governments of dominant regional powers. Matt Hardy asks why. Amid the disruption at airports in Saudi Arabia, the limited access through the Strait of Hormuz and the nagging feeling that the world is on the verge of doom, soft power feels increasingly important. But no longer do quiet meetings always take place in the corners of a consulate or mid-way through a state dinner; instead, new ways to influence geopolitics and exert control are being developed – and one of those is sport. Recent events have shown how football’s geography is so important to its politics – and who stays in the top job – and it is no different when assessing how both rugby league and union are being used in a wider game of battleships within the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. Take the Australian government, which has been an underwriter of the Papua New Guinea rugby league entry into the NRL. The PNG Chiefs – i