Bledisloe Cup match: Put it on Trade Me and see who wants it

OPINION: There was something forced about the All Blacks staged team photo on Sydney's waterfront this week. The squad posed in front of the giant rugby ball that has been erected to promote Rugby World Cup 2011.

By all accounts the ball has been a hit with tourists and a great advertisement for New Zealand, but the players looked uncomfortable and awkward as they were wheeled out and sacrificed at the altar of the marketing gods.

Which brings us to the fact that less than 10,000 tickets have been sold to the All Blacks-Wallabies test scheduled for Hong Kong next month.

Should the New Zealand Rugby Union really be surprised? Who would want to see these two sides play each other for the fourth time in a calendar year? Fans in Hong Kong – let's face it, we are talking about expat Kiwis and Ockers – are sending a message most Kiwis endorse.

Neither the All Blacks, the Wallabies, nor the Bledisloe Cup should be treated like an automatic teller machine.

According to websites, tickets to Bledisloe 4 – it has the same ring as desperate Hollywood howlers like Rocky V – begin at $65 for kids. Adult tickets range from $149 to $210.

There was talk yesterday of moving the match to Twickenham. Sure, and if that doesn't work, just put it on Trade Me and see who wants it. Talk about cheapening the brand.

The All Blacks are unique, but will not remain so if test matches are scheduled in the name of dollars and cents.

The Asian money grab started in 2008. It failed to sell out. The game was as awful as the surface it was played on, but its novelty factor meant it still made a buck, 4 million of them in fact.

Next stop Tokyo. This match also failed to sell out and in the end many tickets were given away. Who remembers the result let alone the score?

Let's not be naive and suggest money doesn't make the rugby world go around. The NZRU's search for a golden goose should not be knocked. Cold hard cash is needed to fund the game in New Zealand and to keep top players in the country.

The US market must surely be the next cab off the rank and there is appeal to the All Blacks packing out an NFL stronghold and taking test rugby to America.

But the message from the lack of interest in Hong Kong should not be lost. It is not to ditch overseas tests altogether. It is to make them meaningful.

- © Fairfax NZ News