Where the heat will focus in 2008

It's got to be a year of redemption – 2008 has to be a season where New Zealand rugby wins on and off the field to help wipe out the memories of one of the poorest years on record. But what is the biggest issue facing our national game?

Co-Editors Marc Hinton and Duncan Johnstone gaze into the crystal ball and roll out their wish-lists as rugby tries to paint over the horrors of the Super 14 and World Cup in particular.

 

Winning back the fans – MARC HINTON

I don't think there's any doubt that the biggest upshot of the ignominious 2007 rugby season has been the damage done to the fanbase of the game around the country.

And that the bigegst challenge in 2008 is going to be winning back those key stakeholders in the game.

The New Zealand Rugby Union showed its lack of empathy towards the paying public when they rubber-stamped Graham Henry's ill-conceived reconditioning programme and effectively ruined the 2007 Super 14 by withdrawing 22 All Blacks from the first seven rounds.

What were the country's Super 14 fans to make of this? They're constantly implored via nefarious marketing campaigns to get behind their teams. To show their true colours. To dig increasingly deeper into their pockets. Then they're served up sub-standard squads and campaigns nobbled by having to phase in returning All Blacks halfway through. All because the national coach had a hunch it might pay dividends later in the year.

The upshot was a competition dominated by South African sides the Sharks and Bulls, and crucial momentum handed to Springbok rugby that went on to pay huge dividends at the World Cup.

Then, when the All Blacks palpably failed to deliver in France, the supposedly crack squad that was meant to be fine-tuned to the peak of performance spluttering out of contention with a lame quarter-final performance against France in Cardiff, it seemed it was the final straw for many rugby fans.

Sure, the general reaction to the failure by the All Blacks -- their worst ever World Cup performance -- was dignified and mature. It may even have helped Henry retain his job.

But there's no escaping the fact there's a real feeling of dissatisfaction at grass-roots level over the whole state of New Zealand rugby -- and if we needed a graphic indication of that it was in the crowds that turned out for the Air New Zealand Cup.

The expansion to 14 teams has not been the disaster some thought, and the success of Hawke's Bay has been one notable spinoff of expansion.

But there can also be little doubt that the provincial competition has now been so diluted that paying fans are struggling to maintain enthusiasm for it. At the business end of this year's event largely empty stadiums were the order of the day as Auckland and Wellington won through to the final.

It may also be one comeptition too many in a year when  the public is asked to get pumped about the Super 14, then about the All Blacks, and then finally about their provinces.

Early indications via the Super 14 host unions is also that they're hardly being rushed off their feet dealing with applications for season tickets in 2008. It's another sign that the loyal fans are growing slightly disillusioned with their sport.

The reappointment of Henry, ahead of a compelling  alternative in Robbie Deans, may not have helped matters in the eys of many diehard fans who would have expected a change at the top given the clear failure of the All Blacks to deliver at the Cup.

It remains to be seen whether the fans can be won back in 2008. A decent off-season break will help, because time, as we know, is a great healer.

The NZRU also landed a scarcely deserved marketing fillip when Deans was appointed Wallabies coach, instantly guaranteeing the Bledisloe Cup grudge match status. The three trans-Tasman contests will now be compelling viewing, if only because of the coaching subplot.

But it remains to be seen whether New Zealand rugby has inflicted irreparable damage on itself in 2007. The proof will be in just how rapidly those turnstiles click over when it all starts up again next year.

It could be the biggest issue facing the game in '08. Rugby has got to get its people enthused again. It will not be an easy task.

 

2011 World Cup planning – DUNCAN JOHNSTONE

It seems to me New Zealand has been treading water in many areas since being awarded the rights to host the 2011 World Cup way back in 2005.

Yes, we've got a good man in charge in Martin Snedden and it's been great to see the wrecker's ball wiping out a good portion of Jade Stadium to give the South Island a head start in their preparations to host the game's biggest extravaganza.

But I'm afraid the Eden Park saga has dragged on for far too long.

We've seen enough artist's impressions to fill half of the Louvre, debated the merits of various alternative stadiums and still come back to the white elephant that is Eden Park, and heard enough financial equations to put us in line for any number of jobs at the World Bank.

It seems there might finally be a glimpse of light at the end of the longest tunnel that our rugby administration has endured. But there's still the not inconsiderable shortfall of around $28m and we're still hearing the same lame excuses from the likes of the Auckland City Council and the Auckland Regional Council about where they fit into the equation.

For the sake of rugby's sanity, let's get this thing humming along now.

The August demolition date for the old South Stand can't come around quick enough for my way of thinking but I worry that there's a fair bit to play out before then.

We've stuffed this World Cup hosting thing up before and we can't afford to do it again. Especially not after the way our neighbours Australia managed to organise the 2003 event and also the super effort that the French produced in 2007.

The world is watching, the heat is on ... and you can already smell the singe marks from this fine line we have been walking.

The showpiece stadium is just one part of this puzzle. Yes, it's the biggest piece of the jig-saw but there is plenty of other work to do in the major centres and the smaller provinces.

Without the massive budgets or the huge population numbers, New Zealand needs to concentrate on producing a unique Kiwi flavour to the tournament where our passion for the game - arguably unrivalled - flows through.

Of course progressing the Cup planning isn't the only challenge facing rugby in 2008.

There's the small matter of performance on the field from our Super 14 teams as they try to wrestle back the silverware from South Africa and try to find the right fit under the new laws.

Graham Henry and his All Blacks will be under intense scrutiny after surviving the biggest World Cup balls-up in our history and plenty of that heat will be coming from across the Tasman where New Zealand's Robbie Deans is in charge.

There's the not insignificant matter of trying to find the right mix for the Air New Zealand Cup with the grumblings growing from both the provincial heavyweights and lightweights after just two years of the new format.

Basically all of this adds up to credibility.

Rugby will always have the die-hards who stick staunchly to the game. But it is obvious that rugby is under attack from many sporting and entertainment alternatives.

Those people who swing their sporting support between what's hot and what's not have certainly slipped away from watching the 15-man game, disillusioned by some stifling rules, rotation, average results and an almost arrogant air that pervades over rugby.

It's time to get the ball rolling again - for 2008 and for 2011.

- © Fairfax NZ News