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'Didn't think I would ever experience an All Blacks test like this'
The All Blacks‘ 57-22 win over the Wallabies in the second of back-to-back tests at Eden Park was played in front of the smallest crowd for a Bledisloe test in over 50 years in Auckland.
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The official count stood at 25,121, a far cry from last week’s sellout with 47,000 fans. Despite the All Blacks’ performance being worthy of a better crowd, the fans not showing up has put a spotlight on the state of the game in New Zealand.
The crowd was labelled ‘poor’, a ‘disgrace’ and ‘very disappointing crowd for our national sport’ by Kiwi fans online as theories were tabled as to why there was such a low turnout for such a critical game in the Bledisloe series.
Official crowd attendance at Eden Park is 25,121 #NZLvAUS
— Aiden McLaughlin (@Womble101) August 14, 2021
What a poor crowd! Has Jacinta closed the borders to Eden Park too? #NZLvAUS
— Kristopher Gale (@k_gale88) August 14, 2021
Very disappointing crowd for our national sport. Nowhere near a sellout. Big wake-up call for Mark Robinson & NZRFU to address exorbitant ticket prices.
— Christian Hansen (@cpHansen3) August 14, 2021
That crowd is a disgrace!
Can’t tell me it wouldn’t have been a sell out anywhere else.
Give someone else a crack! #nzlvaus #Bledisloe
— Phil Lemin (@phil_lemin) August 14, 2021
To everyone asking why it’s a small crowd: this game was meant to be in Welly in 2wks but Covid in Oz meant they wouldn’t be able to get to Perth and then back again w/o quarantine. But there’s another event in Welly tonight so game moved to Auck, but no time to sell tix #NZLvAUS
— Brendon Trass (@brendontrass) August 14, 2021
Didn’t think I would ever experience an All Blacks test like this in NZ let alone a Bledisloe Cup. Sure just over a week lead in time, over priced tickets too, and test at same venue, but overriding feeling is the lure of the All Blacks is not there anymore, 25 min till KO pic.twitter.com/myhGEv4Hau
— Matt Brown (@chahuahua) August 14, 2021
Players on field pic.twitter.com/R8K5nfY5d0
— Matt Brown (@chahuahua) August 14, 2021
Who wants to support a team that’s going to be sponsored by an oil company? Such a shame for the black jersey ?
— JuanitaNZ (@Signsoflife27) August 14, 2021
They should have significantly discounted the ticket prices. It was always going to be difficult otherwise to sell out Auckland two weeks in a row for the same opposition.
— SnowCastle (@SnowCastle100) August 14, 2021
Its not the 70’s and 80’s anymore, people have the internet, people have been overseas, people have seen other sports, and don’t have to rely on NZ Journos to shove one sport down out throats. We now have access to see LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Messi, Salah, etc etc etc.
— Guy Smiley (@GuySmiley11) August 14, 2021
Many reasons were floated for the absence of fans, including Wallabies fatigue given just a week ago the same game was played at the same place, high ticket prices, lack of time to promote the game and even the All Blacks’ new oil sponsor Ineos turning away fans.
The second test was originally scheduled to be in Perth, with the third Bledisloe back in Wellington. A resumption of government restrictions around international travel put plans up in limbo.
With border restrictions in place and Sky Stadium having been booked out for this weekend, Wellington couldn’t host the game instead of Perth so Auckland was given two in a row.
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After the game, Sam Whitelock and head coach Ian Foster were queried around the crowd numbers for the test. The All Blacks lock said he was happy with the effort from those that turned up, showing loud and respectful support.
“For myself, being a tight five forward, I don’t really know what is going on with the crowd,” Whitelock said.
“I go back to the North vs South game we played last year when there was no crowd, that was really when I noticed it for the first time.
“The people that were here tonight, they were awesome. They were loud, they were respectful, they got in behind us when we were doing well but also when we needed that lift.
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“It’s great to have people here, sure it would be great to have it packed out every week. If we get another one in New Zealand, hopefully we can do it.”
Ian Foster suggested that the turnout shows just how hard it is to put on a test match, and with 10 days notice it was going to be difficult to host two tests in the same market back-to-back.
“I think it shows the enormity of what it takes to stage a big test match. If you look at last week, 47,000, that was a brilliant job from everyone in our organisation to fill the stadium,” Foster said.
“To have a game thrust into the same market with 10 days notice, it just shows you the complexities for professional rugby and professional sport.
“I looked around the stadium and thought, wow, let’s focus on who’s there.
“I looked at the Lions-Springboks series, which is an iconic series, played in front of empty grandstands. We are about to go to Australia, and who knows what size grandstands we’ll get there.
“We are just going to celebrate the people that are there.”
The All Blacks coach thought that judging the crowd in these times was ‘harsh’ with the tough times people are going through.
“We’ve got to face the fact that we are in interesting times. The whole concept of planning your time is a little bit different, people have shorter turnarounds.
“It’s kinda not my problem but I wouldn’t be judging it that harsh. The times are pretty tough for a whole lot of people.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Ever so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to comments