Wynne Gray: Let's offer Eden Park to the Crusaders

Robbie Fruean of the Crusaders. Photo / Getty Images

Talk about money in the game; the haves and the have-nots.

Even with an easing exchange rate, those north of the equator are the moneybags, while those south are rich in players.

It was staggering to see the Crusaders thinking about taking their players and management from their fifth-round match in Dunedin to Twickenham to play the Sharks six days later. That would have been the schedule if the RFU had agreed to stage that Super 15 fixture in London.

It would have been a monumental journey for the Crusaders and also the Sharks, who would have made the trek to Twickers from Hamilton before dropping back to Durban.

Obviously the vast air-miles, jetlag and unfamiliar surroundings would have been swatted away by a monster payday. Otherwise, why spend a day and more in a tin budgie - even in business class - and airport lounges?

For a Crusaders squad understandably reluctant to stray too far from their families and quake-ridden homebase in Christchurch, it must have been lucrative to even consider the round trip to Twickers, even with a bye round to follow.

Twickers can hold 85,000 and even with the costs of getting there and staging the match, the Crusaders would accrue a vast return compared to any full house signs they can get at Nelson or Timaru.

These are extraordinary times so the Crusaders have to think well outside Cathedral or Latimer Square.

That can be the only conclusion, otherwise the Crusaders would have done well out of holding some games at the 60,000 capacity Eden Park.

They still might and I'm sure Auckland would support them. Those of us in the City of Sails who have not seen Christchurch first hand since the disaster, have restricted comprehension of the emotional and physical damage in the Garden City.

We can see pictures and read all the harrowing stories but we do not have to live with the daily effects of that ongoing trauma. But red-and-blacks friends say any support has been genuinely given and received.

If Twickers is out, Eden Park must be in line for that March 25 game. The Blues are not using the ground that night. Flying the Crusaders to Auckland would give them more practice for the World Cup and our city another chance to embrace and pay tribute to the southern cuzzies.