The NZRFU just had its worst result ever even though they have played the most games ever. Steve Tews response to this "We will organise more HIGH profile games". Steve you have bled the value of this game out by quantity. You and IRB can go away and stop taking all my ticket money. Play less rugby, fire marketing staff and thatl give the money to stop players going to Europe. Those who cant make a 25 AB squad can go too. Graham Henry and his creating an all Black every game strategy means there is an all black asking for money on every street corner these days, wheres the mana in that? In one generation rugby has gone from something that never needed marketing to something that seems no more than a game of 20/20. Gets on my wick as i use to like rugby now its trite

@all blacks rule #55

England is not the rest of the world mate! Maybe you should travel and get your facts straight before commenting.

"All Blacks Rule #55". Your claim that the All Blacks are a 'world' brand are ridiculous. The UK is not the world.

The All Blacks are known about in Britain (as you say), France, Australia, and South Africa. Combined populations which barely make up 2% of the world's population. And in all these places, except for Australia, football is the number one sport - by far.

Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. That is most of the world, the All Blacks have about zero brand recognition.

Sorry to disappoint.

Myth buster #54:

Support your statement in general. But it was not 60 million who watched the 2007 final. It was a measly 33 million.

http://tinyurl.com/y7lrzab

You get three times as many people watching the superbowl!

And Rod #30. Using attendance levels at stadiums as a way to compare the RWC with the FIFA world cup is so ludicrous as to not warrant any further response.

Do you know the average audience for each FIFA world cup game this year? It was 400 million per match.

That is on average each game of the FIFA world cup had an audience about 12 times greater than the FINAL game of the 2007 RWC.

Oh. To the person who said rugby is the third biggest sport in the world. Utter tripe. Team handball has about 18 million registered players, against rugby's miniscule 2 million.

Just off the top of my head, some sports events bigger than the Rugby 'World' Cup: European Championships (watched all over Asia as well as Europe), the Copa America, The Africa Nations Cup, the Asian Cup,the Asian Games, the Superbowl, any of the golf majors, tennis majors, cricket world cup.

Furthermore the majority of countries fighting out the various football championships almost all have soccer as their national game. That is why football is so competitive.

Whereas of the nations at the RWC, only New Zealand, Wales, and numerically insignificant island countries have rugby as their national sport.

Did you know the English premiership, attracts an average audience of 1.2 billion per week?

Rugby is simply a minnow sport with the world popularity of curling.

Any game which has less players than there are soccer players in the whole of France cannot in anyway be described as international.

Get your heads out of the sand kiwis. 97% of the world's population simply have never heard of the All Blacks.

Yes its true, the AB's are well known around the world. Just google the words 'sports choke' and you will find a plethora of information on the 16 percenters.

Ha ha Ex All Black Fan, you're a laugh! Are you seriously suggesting the All Blacks aren't popular overseas? I think you're more than a little confused mate. Running out of reasonable excuses to justify your arguments are you? So maybe the All Blacks aren't as big a brand as say, Manchester United, but that doesn't mean that they're insignificant to people overseas. Take England for example, they have the world's biggest Soccer League and have the Aviva Championship Rugby competition (formerly Guinness Premiership). They have the largest player base in the world but roughly one third of their top clubs players are foreigners. Two years ago, after a rather large chunk of top class NZ players left overseas, the Poms thought we'd be easy meat but found themselves well beaten in all three games that year. Turns out they were rather envious of the All Blacks and their ability to recover from having their talent pool pillaged so much by the European Clubs post World Cup. If you really honestly think the All Blacks aren't a recognised name around the world then it's you who is deluded mate.

The RWC is the third most viewed sporting event - really ?

About 700 million watched the last Soccer WC final, only 60 odd million watched the last RWC final. You don't think more than 60 million watched; any of the major US sports finals, Euro final (soccer), African Cup final (soccer), any number of events in India, China etc etc

Maybe they mean sports series in which case; winter Olympics, any number of US sports post season play off series, African, Asian, Euro and South American soccer championships, IPL etc etc

They've got to take the game to the US surely. I'm not sure where exactly though...

Lok#28 and zoidberg#26- "Some 20,000 fans from 85 different countries were successful in their applications." Yes more than 8,000 suggested by #2 but far from the massive 100,00 implied in your note

South Africa for example- had an initial expectation of 500,000 overseas visitors in reality the total number was nearer to 200,000 and the number of empty seats were dramatic... New Zealand will have to rely on NZ'ers buying a large majority of tickets.. (in particular the groups games)

#26 Furthermore Mr Zoidborg "cashed up brits" are few and far between.. we're talking a very small minority who are born into the professional toff culture and follow rugby.. The economy is still buggered in Britain and for the world cup, flights will be a premium.. (The pound is also far weaker against the $ compared to several years back)

Anyhow.. not going to enter the debate re Rugby popularity... I enjoy all sports and watching an AB's test in London at the pub can't be beat, but travel the globe and you get a better feel for where rugby trully stands

Couldn't agree more Tony! At best this game is a money grab. At worst it denies home crowds an opportunity to see the final Bledisloe of the year (used to think two was enough, three made it fairer, four is just pushing it).

If they really want to do this properly, do it with a new trophy named after two former captains (one kiwi, one aussie) and play the match every four years, at the mid point between world cups, in whatever region makes sense to promote the game. Japan, USA, or one of the Pacific Island nations as a boost to revenue for their rugby.

It is such a shame that the mana is being taken out of the All Blacks jersey, and replaced with money.