The boys are back

A week's a long time in politics - ask Chris Carter. But ask Dan Carter - or team- mates - and he'll tell you what a difference a year makes in rugby.

Carter and the All Blacks have felt the love in Christchurch this week after their three Tri-Nations triumphs. Fans have been flocking to see them at training and at bingo sessions in shopping malls.

Yet this time last year the All Blacks were mired in a mid-winter malaise after slumping to two consecutive test defeats in South Africa. The sport faced its challenges off the field too. Super 14 franchises and provincial unions were being bled dry by the ravages of the recession and public indifference. There were gripes from the grassroots sector about the growing disconnect with the elite arm of the national game.

Alarmingly, a national survey revealed pubic interest in rugby had plummeted 12 percentage points from 72 per cent in 2008 to 60 per cent last year.

It wasn't just casual fans turning away in their droves. Rugby purists were almost having a breakdown watching the breakdowns, as tacklers flopped over ball carriers to kill the pill.

Even ex-All Blacks found it a chore to watch their beloved sport straitjacketed by ceaseless kicking, ultra-defensive tactics, serial scrum collapses and tedium and trickery at the tackle area - the game's chief collision point.

You wouldn't get anyone more steeped in the sport than former All Blacks captain, Linwood loyalist and ex-Canterbury and New Zealand rugby unions president Tane Norton. But even the 1970s test stalwart found watching some games at the elite level a chore - till this year.

It got to the stage where each time a scrum packed down, Norton turned to his fellow former frontrower Bill Bush and said: "How many times do you think this one will collapse and be re- set?" "Two or three," Bush would bark back from behind his beard and Norton would give a resigned nod.

"It's awful when you think like that," he says.

But he wasn't alone. Former All Blacks loose forward and coach Alex Wyllie said top-level rugby was "shocking to watch" at times last year. He was frustrated at referees' interpretations at the breakdown. "It was benefiting those teams that didn't, or couldn't, play the game properly. People were killing the ball and slowing it down.

"It wasn't so bad in club rugby and teams from the smaller provinces last year were still moving the ball around quite well."

But Wyllie says people, while still supporting their clubs and provinces, were almost immune to the professional game last season. "You'd go into your local after a club game and there was a game on [TV], but no-one would be worried about watching it."

That's all changed now. Norton, Wyllie and their mates are enjoying their footie once again. Rugby has discovered its mojo. Play is flowing, thanks to the expansive style of the All Blacks and the positive response of some of the most maligned men in the game - referees.

Whistleblowers are cracking down - finally - on dark deeds committed in the netherworld of the ruck. Tacklers now have to release the ball carrier and get to their feet before having a crack at the ball. The onus has shifted to the second defender at the ruck to effect a turnover. The odds now favour the attacking team.

Everyone, from players, coaches, administrators, press, punters, administrators and television moguls are much happier. Even All Blacks coach Graham Henry seems to have a permanent smile on his dial.

"It's better to watch this year," Wyllie says. The tackle rule, he says, has always been there, but referees, are now policing it "a helluva lot more".

The beneficiaries are those players and teams who try to play positive rugby - most notably the All Blacks and Australia.

Norton says rugby watching has "changed completely this year". Norton, like Wyllie, watches a lot of club rugby and he says the new, positive approach will spread to the grassroots game. "If the All Blacks play a certain style, so will everyone else."

Norton says the All Blacks' strength has "always been ball in hand". Now, he says, McCaw's men are able again to "drive forward and give the backs some ball on the front foot".

Wyllie agrees rugby "at the moment, is now more of a running game". Referees have helped, but "it all comes down to the attitude of coaches and players".

International Rugby Board referees chief Paddy O'Brien is delighted with the outcome of the tougher policing of the breakdown.

Rugby league aficionados have long derided rugby union as kick- and-clap. But that time-honoured taunt may no longer ring true. O'Brien downloads figures he received at his Invercargill base this week to show negative kicking appears to be on the wane.

"At the Rugby World Cup in 2007, the ball was kicked on average 80-plus times per game," he says. In other words, once every minute.

"Tier-one" tests - between the top 10 ranked IRB nations - in 2008 and 2009 featured an average of 65 kicks per match.

"In last week's game [the All Blacks-Wallabies Bledisloe Cup test in Melbourne] the ball was kicked a total of 18 times," O'Brien says.

Only one could be regarded an "up and under" - a box kick by a halfback. The rest were either grubbers or chips - attacking kicks in other words - or kicks to touch from penalties. But O'Brien insists refs won't be resting on their laurels or relaxing the reins.

"We've still got to keep the foot on the throat when it comes to offside around the rucks and maul."

So what does O'Brien say to naysayers bemoaning the number of penalties, warnings and yellow cards stemming from the refs' tougher stance at the breakdown?

"We ended up with 10 tries in the Melbourne test because of it."

The game's faster, more frenetic. Graham Henry mused in Melbourne in a post-match television interview that he wondered if a record had been set for the amount of minutes the ball was in play.

There are fewer set pieces this season - just 12 scrums last weekend - and what scrums there are don't seem to be collapsing as often.

Wyllie, once the best forwards coach in the world, wouldn't want to see scrums and lineouts sidelined completely. People still want to see some set piece "contests". Besides, "80 minutes is a long time to run around".

Canterbury Rugby Union chief executive Hamish Riach acknowledges the law changes and that the All Blacks' success and compelling style of play have been major drivers behind the renewed feel-good atmosphere around the sport.

But he says it hasn't been an entirely All Black phenomenon. The Crusaders' crowds were "up 41 per cent on last year" and were the largest in the country. Contributing factors included cheaper ticket prices - slashed by up to 60 per cent - a new marketing focus and the team's greater interface with the community.

Crusaders chairman Murray Ellis said earlier in the year he expected the franchise would break even this year after a $297,000 loss in 2009. Riach is also cautiously optimistic of better support for the Canterbury national provincial championship team.

"We got just over 12,000 to the first ITM Cup game against Hawke's Bay. Last year, we averaged 10,691."

It's early days yet, he admits, but the trends are positive.

The Melbourne test was a huge hit with TV viewers. Exact figures were not available, but New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew says combined viewership (on Sky TV and Prime) was "the best we've had for a couple of years, up there with our numbers in 2006".

"The reason people are watching is we are getting a better spectacle."

Tew admits that this time last year rugby had to "deal with some pretty pessimistic stuff around the game".

Even Tew is "pleased but somewhat surprised" at "how we've been able to effect changes [to the quality of rugby] so easily, and I use that word reservedly because it did require a lot of work to get buy-in from referees and coaches".

The All Blacks certainly feel they have more Kiwis behind them this year. Captain Richie McCaw told reporters this week that he "felt a different anticipation" before the start of the international season.

"I don't know if [the World Cup] next year has got something to do with it, but certainly there is a bit more excitement around the game. Obviously, the good performances are certainly [having something to do with it]. People that would not normally say too much, or watch a whole lot of rugby, all of sudden talk to you about they're enjoying what they see.

"I think that has been the difference . . . and I guess that is the result of playing well and playing a brand of rugby . . . that is enjoyable to watch."

The statistics back up McCaw's gut feeling. Pollsters UMR Research's June survey showed interest in rugby had risen slightly to 65 per cent.

Research director Gavin White expects that to increase at the time of the next survey in late August or September "both because of the ABs in the Tri-Nations and because the ITM Cup seems to be getting more attention and more favourable coverage than last year".

But rugby isn't out of the woods yet. Both the Canterbury and New Zealand rugby unions have had to tighten their belts, with the national body losing $15.9m last year.

Wyllie warns that club rugby is still struggling for numbers, particularly in rural areas, and he's concerned at the drop-out rate once players leave school.

Riach doesn't have the hard data yet but "anecdotally" he suspects there will be a "a slight reduction" in player registrations this year. He says that's not due to the football World Cup winning hearts and minds - registrations took place two months before the All Whites' campaign. But it could be attributable, in part, to the recession.

He also concedes there are still challenges with the perceived disconnect between the amateur and professional games. But he says Canterbury is working hard to bridge that gap and there's a willingness among the contracted players to get involved with their clubs by taking part in junior registration days and "supporting their clubs from the sideline as much as possible".

The NZRU does not have final figures yet but Tew believe it is "at least holding our own" in terms of player numbers - which were about 145,000 last year.

"And that's in a year where, quite rightly, we've given football its own time in the sun."

He says the All Whites' achievements in qualifying for the Fifa World Cup and "their impressive performances in South Africa" would "help to create a positive environment" for all sport in New Zealand.

"I've said often that if we get more kids active and playing sport, that has got to be good for everybody. Whether we directly benefit is not the No 1 issue.

"The biggest challenge for us and every sport in the country in 2010 is the economic situation."

Tew says there is no immediate commercial spinoff - "other than around gate income" - from the heightened interest in rugby because the NZRU's commercial sponsorships tend to be longer- term deals.

"But everything is inter- connected," he says, including the imminent Rugby World Cup. People are starting to get excited a year out from the tournament being held in New Zealand with "the first phase of ticket sales" looking quite promising.

Sustained success by the All Blacks can only help boost sales, Tew agrees, "but not all tickets will be sold to New Zealanders. There are other important factors too, such as the economic situation in the UK and France in terms of the travelling public".

But things are generally looking rosier in rugbyland. Tew's getting that message from taxi drivers, baggage check-in staff "and people at social functions".

"Rugby is the New Zealand diet."

However, he cautions against complacency.

"We have medium and long- term strategies, but we're not taking anything for granted. Just like the team, we're working hard on the day to day things. We're just like the All Blacks in that regard."

- © Fairfax NZ News