The Australian Rugby Union has agreed a wide-ranging four-year partnership with British professional services giant Aon, alongside a three-year deal with sports hydration company SOS.
The Aon partnership will run from 2017 to 2020 and will revolve around backing women’s rugby in Australia. The Aon logo will feature on the back of the playing jerseys of Australia’s world and Olympic champion women’s sevens team beginning this weekend at the Sydney 7s event.
The partnership also provides Aon with naming rights for the new National Women’s University Sevens Series which is set for kick-off in August. Additional rights for Aon under the agreement include naming rights for the National Women’s Youth Sevens Championship and official status as risk partner of the ARU.
In Australia, Aon has 41 offices across the country and 1,800 employees. Aon Risk Solutions Australia chief executive, Lambros Lambrou, said: “The decision to partner with and sponsor the women’s sevens was a natural one for us. It’s exciting to be a part of one of the fastest growing participation sports in Australia.
“This partnership provides us with a real opportunity to not only contribute to diversifying the world of sport but also and ultimately, demonstrates our commitment to empowering women to be successful in leadership.
“We share the ARU’s vision of building a high performance culture, and it will be exciting to see how this shared vision evolves along with our partnership. Our sponsorship will also enable us to create social impact through our support for the ARU’s long term strategic vision to inspire all Australians to enjoy our great global game. Through this, we are committing to work with the organisation to enhance opportunities for players from grassroots village and club rugby right through to the elite level.”
The ARU’s agreement with SOS will see the company become the official hydration partner of the men’s national team through the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, as well as the Australian sevens teams in the build up to their Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games campaign.
Throughout the partnership SOS will continue its research into hydration within the recently developed ‘SOS Sweat Lab’ in Melbourne. The Sweat Lab will further assist the ARU by evaluating the individual hydration needs of the players to determine those required on the field.