Other sports such as football, triathlon, rowing and basketball have become adept at snaring young men who, maybe 20 years ago, would have gravitated to rugby partly through lack of choice. Aware that they can no longer be complacent about recruiting players, the New Zealand Rugby Union drew up a detailed plan ahead of the World Cup designed to capitalise on the tournament being held here.
Australia (2003) and France (2007) both enjoyed peripheral hosting benefits such as increased player numbers and spectator interest.
The challenge for the NZRU was always going to be that bit stiffer given the high percentage already playing.
Modest growth would be just fine, though, and NZRU head of community rugby, Brent Anderson, says the anecdotal evidence is strong that youngsters are being drawn to rugby as a consequence of the World Cup.
One of the key post tournament initiatives has been the "Great Rugby Road Trip" where the World Cup has been taken to schools by All Blacks who helped win it.
"The feedback has been outstanding," says Anderson.
"I just received a letter the other day from a principal at a primary school in Wellington where Victor Vito visited with the World Cup.
"It is clear by getting the Cup out there that we are trying in part to inspire them and in some part of the kids' minds we hope they will be thinking about rugby and playing it. We are hearing good things from some clubs along the lines that they had 450 registrations last year and maybe 520 or thereabouts this year."
The positive vibe and likely confirmed growth at the grassroots level is the uplifting side of the story.
But while the legacy promises are being fulfilled at that end, it is doubtful whether the sport has made any great shifts with its professional offering.
The NZRU spent much of the World Cup pondering ways to retain the new audience.
Significant numbers of people who wouldn't normally buy tickets were hooked by the World Cup and fell in love with a sport they either didn't know or had drifted away from.
The NZRU wanted to ensure they would continue to come back long after the World Cup and talked of improving the stadium experience.
But many of these promises appear to be falling flat despite increased attendance and viewing figures in the early rounds of Super Rugby.
It's questionable whether the boom is sustainable because rugby continues to be an unfathomable, inconsistent mess at the breakdown.
Even seasoned campaigners were struggling to understand why there were 30 penalties awarded in the clash between the Hurricanes and Highlanders. But that game, sadly, doesn't stand out as an exception and coaches and players speak of the same old frustrations every week.
It takes anything from 10 to 40 minutes for teams to adapt to a referee's interpretations and sometimes they never do.
Rugby as theatre is next to impossible to sell when the actors don't know their lines or the plot. The old laments also still swirl about night rugby and the refusal to stand up to broadcasters.
Never was that better illustrated than Friday night when the Blues were forced to play the Hurricanes - just five days after getting home from Africa when they wanted to play on a Sunday afternoon.
The boss men still don't appear to be listening to their key stakeholder - the fans - and the great fear has to be that all those new recruits will slowly drift away when they find little to keep them engaged.
