'Wake up': Kiwi scribe's message to New Zealand fans over turnout

A New Zealand rugby writer has called for the fans to take accountability for the low turnout between two of Super Rugby’s top two sides.

Whilst a sold out crowd in Hamilton created an electric atmosphere for the Chiefs Crusaders derby on Saturday night, the Hurricanes and the Brumbies crowd was disappointing despite the fact the two sides are second and third on the ladder.

New Zealand fans tend to prefer the Kiwi derbies which isn’t showing enough respect to the top Australian sides argued Jamie Wall.

“I think that a bit of that has to go on fans themselves, just not being able to make up their own mind or just simply not being interested enough in this competition,” Wall told SENZ The Saturday Session.

“That’s a good Brumbies team, there’s some really good players in there that are worth paying money to watch and they almost knocked off a (strong) Hurricanes side.

“There’s only so much marketing a Super Rugby team can do because they just don’t have any money for a start.

“I think the rugby community just needs to actually just kind of open their eyes a bit, stop buying into the fact that the only games worth watching involve the Crusaders or the Chiefs or whatever and just actually … wake up to the fact that at least the Brumbies are worth watching.”

The Brumbies knocked off the highly fancied Blues during round two in Melbourne’s Super round and sent a second string side to Christchurch in the loss to the Crusaders.

Before Friday night’s clash they were 6-1 on the season, and were well in the fixture against the Hurricanes until a late try to Aidan Morgan sealed the game.

Wellington’s weather can often turn the punters away but Friday night was a rare still night in the nation’s blustery capital.

The Hurricanes were also celebrating the 150th appearance of hometown hero Julian Savea to add to the occasion.

Wall believed that the glass has to be broken on the belief that Kiwi derbies are superior to Trans-Tasman clashes.

“I just think that there’s a narrative running through the media at the moment that if it doesn’t involve one of the top New Zealand sides then it’s not worth watching,” he added.

“That’s not fair, I don’t buy into that at all.

“Super Rugby is really up against it as a competition, a lot of it is its own fault but a lot more of it is kind of out of their control.

“A lot of the bad press that we’re getting about it is just because of the interference that the All Blacks have on the competition.”

“If you look at their record this year, they’d only lost one game going into last night and the games that they had played were actually really interesting.