The clash between the All Blacks and South Africa at Twickenham has been sold out. Photo / Photosport
The clash between the All Blacks and South Africa at Twickenham has been sold out. Photo / Photosport
OPINION
The All Blacks’ final test before the World Cup is a chance for the team to display their rediscovered physical prowess and demonstrate that they have the requisite robustness to stand up to what remains a phenomenally powerful Springboks pack.
But having managed to sell outTwickenham, a ground with 82,000 seats, it may be that the real point of this last pre-World Cup hit out is to demonstrate the power of the All Blacks brand.
It’s quite the flex by the All Blacks that they have managed to sell out the iconic ground in London’s South-West for their Friday night clash with the Boks, while England, whose home ground is of course Twickenham, have only managed to sell 40,000-plus tickets for their clash the following day with Fiji.
It may not be a strictly fair comparison as a test between New Zealand and South Africa – even one serving no other purpose than to give the players something to do ahead of the tournament – has a depth of history and intensity of rivalry that a game between Fiji and England could never replicate.
But still, the different levels of interest for these two games illustrates that the All Blacks have considerable power and reach.
The All Blacks and Springboks clash at Twickenham is a sell-out. Photo / Photosport
And the ability to generate such interest for an isolated fixture that has nothing riding on it, must be piquing New Zealand Rugby’s interest about what future possibilities it can consider to commercialise tests, and where in the world it may have the best chance of engaging and monetising new All Blacks fans.
NZR, having jumped into partnership with US fund manager Silver Lake, is now in what will likely prove to be a never-ending quest to keep growing revenue.
As it has signalled many times in the last few years, the only feasible means it has to do this is to keep finding new All Blacks fans living outside of New Zealand.
This is the downside of having an enormously successful sporting team in a country with just five million people – the brand outgrows its market and so if this new financial set-up is going to make the returns that it needs to, the All Blacks need another five million committed fans.
It’s a daunting order, certainly ambitious, but there is some inkling of hope on the basis of this one test, that NZR could be relatively successful if it reconsiders its obsession with Japan and the USA as the two most likely markets in which it will find these new All Blacks fans.
For the last decade, the All Blacks have been playing commercial tests in both the US and Japan, because NZR is convinced these two countries, with their massive economies, are the holy grail of global sporting markets.
Japan in particular has a growing rugby following and the sport is backed by many of the world’s largest corporations.
But there perhaps needs to be a change of thinking about the opportunity Japan presents to New Zealand, because it is probably not the gold mine NZR thinks it is.
NZR signed a cooperation agreement earlier this year with Japan, so the All Blacks are going to continue to regularly play there.
But this needs to be viewed now as a high-performance rather than commercial venture.
The goal should be to help the Japanese national team get up to speed ahead of likely joining the Nations Championship in 2026.
The real commercial epicentre for NZR may turn out to be London and the UK may ultimately prove to be the best place to find currently dormant All Blacks fans.
The reasons to think this are everywhere. It’s an established rugby market with a mostly affluent fan base and the fascination with the All Blacks remains considerable.
Plenty of Brits will moan about historic atrocities committed by the All Blacks, they will whine about the haka and claim New Zealand are the world’s luckiest team when it comes to refereeing judgments.
But this is only because there is a depth of respect for the All Blacks and a genuine admiration for how they go about their business.
Established rugby fans with a long association with the game seem far more likely to become invested in the All Blacks than Americans and Japanese who don’t currently know rugby.
Playing more tests in London feels like a better strategy than turning up in Washington DC and hoping to make the uninitiated fall in love with the sport and the team.
If an All Blacks versus Springboks warm-up game can sell out Twickenham, imagine the hype and dollars that a Rugby Championship game between them would generate.
England, strangely, could be the best place for NZR to go hunting for new fans and the country most likely to fall in love with the All Blacks.
All Blacks v Springboks: Follow the match at nzherald.co.nz
Elliott Smith’s live commentary on GoldSport, Newstalk ZB and iHeartradio
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