The first thing rugby players should do when they take the field this weekend is form a circle facing outward and applaud everyone who has got off their couch to come along to watch them.
The second thing that should happen is a public announcement from Rugby New Zealand that it is sincerely sorry for having failed for so long to fully appreciate those who turn up and pay at the gate and that henceforth it will do its best to see that their comfort, information and enjoyment is first class.
Those sentiments should be earnestly endorsed by television commentators who now realise how much televised sport owes to a live crowd. Covid-19 has forced all of us, especially armchair spectators, to look into the darkness of sport in empty stadiums and it is deadly. I doubt anyone quite realised how deadly it would be.
Back on March 13 when we'd just moved from alert level 1 to level 2 without knowing there was a level 1, 2, 3 or 4, the Black Caps took the field for the opening match of a scheduled one-day cricket series in Australia. Back here, we were more worried about another thrashing on the scale of the recent test series than the absence of a crowd.
The match was not very old before another thrashing was happening. David Warner and Aaron Finch were hitting boundaries at will. But there was no thunder of cheering each time the ball went to the fence. When Finch slung two sixes into the stands, the crack of his bat echoed around the Sydney Cricket Ground and died. Fielders climbed into the stands to search for the ball under empty seats.