Continuing our series on the state of rugby in NZ
Over a third of New Zealanders say the All Blacks play too many tests, A DigiPoll for nzherald.co.nz has found.
The poll asked 600 people if they thought the All Blacks played too many rugby tests in a season. More than 35 per cent answered "yes" while 43 per cent
said the number of tests was "about right" and 7.2 per cent said there were "too few". The remaining 14.5 per cent said "don't know".
The test calendar is one of the topics that comes up at every negotiating round between the New Zealand Rugby Union and the New Zealand Rugby Players' Association.
Players Association chief executive Rob Nichol said ideally it would like to see 12 tests a year - three less than were played last year.
Thirteen test matches have been confirmed for this year and Mr Nichol said the NZRU is in negotiations to organise more.
He said while the unions' coffers need to be taken into account, the reputation of international rugby must also be protected and too many international matches in a year would erode the unique qualities of the game.
"You never want to see an All Black test match taken for granted because they should be special, unique contests where it is the best versus the best," he said.
Mr Nichol said over-exposing test match rugby will devalue the game long-term, plus there are considerations for the players themselves. Last year's Northern Hemisphere tour saw about 14 All Blacks leave young children at home.
"We appreciate rugby is a wonderful opportunity, etcetera, etcetera, but eventually that can cause stress," Mr Nichol said.
He said players need time to recuperate and an end of season tour can cut into that.
Instead of trying to schedule more test matches, the NZRU should look at sharing revenue with other unions which make huge profits when the All Blacks play overseas.
"When people at home watched the All Blacks fill the stadium in Milan last year, we didn't get any of that - arguably it cost us money to go," Mr Nichol said.
The NZRU's Commercial Manager Paul Dalton said the poll result shows support for the test calendar.
"We're not surprised at these views - there's solid support for the number of Tests the All Blacks currently play - noting that 50.4 per cent think they're playing about the right level or could be playing more.
"As your survey indicates, rugby as a topic tends to generate some very diverse views," Mr Dalton said in a statement.
Supporters clubs
Canterbury Rugby Supporters Club president Dick Taylor said he would have expected more respondents to say there are too many All Blacks matches.
The Air New Zealand Cup had brought people back to the game, but would always be put aside for All Blacks games.
Mr Taylor said there was despondency generated by the All Blacks' performance at the World Cup and the decision to re-hire Graham Henry as coach had turned some people off the game.
But the cheaper ticket prices offered by the Canterbury union and last year's Ranfurly Shield win to Southland has re-kindled an interest in provincial rugby, he said.
Mr Taylor said, so far, that has not been translated to the international matches.
Auckland Rugby Union Supporters Club president Barry Cave said pulling the All Blacks from some of the provincial games is only one of the reasons why his club is seeing a drop off in numbers.
He said the All Blacks play too many tests and don't have a chance to recuperate from injuries.
"It's a great thing to have the All Blacks playing but it does affect the other tiers of rugby," Mr Cave said.
Wellington Rugby Supporters Club president Graham McGuire said he felt the number of tests was about right.
"They get paid to play," he said.
TV viewers
TV audience numbers for All Blacks test matches remain high, according to figures from AGB Neilsen.
The final Tri-Nations game in 2008 between Australia and the All Blacks saw 397,280 people over the age of five tuning in at 10pm, while in 2009 the same two teams played three hours earlier and were watched by 510,900.
Over on Sky's free-to-air channel, Prime, the pattern was repeated with 190,020 people tuning in to the 2008 game on delayed coverage and 278,570 people watching the following year.
The Herald DigiPoll was carried out between January 29 and February 10. It had a sample of 600 and a margin of error of +/- 4 per cent.