Rugby TV viewership, attendances up in NZ

further to my post, been reading of how the Euro 2012 viewer stats are recorded - they use the figure from the 'peak five minutes of game time'; typically in the tournament this has been the penalty shoot-outs. I don't know if the rugby figures are also based on this 'peak five minute' figure.?

And to go with the upward trends there is speculation that the almighty dollar will win the day. http://cargocollective.com/alternativerugbycommentary/Jedi-s-Blog Not happy about this!!

Titus the facts are that the game was called soccer by those who played the game for approx 20 years before anyone started referring to it as "football". This is why the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and basically any other country in the world which has another football code refers to it as soccer because soccer was it's original name. There was a interesting "legend" about the word soccer Charles Wredford Brown - a student of Oxford - had some friends who asked him to come and play some rugger. He replied no thanks I prefer Soccer. The name caught on and it was refereed to as thus hence forth

Titus union and league are also football, it's just rather than being governed by the Football Association they were governed by the Rugby Football Union and the Rugby Football League. I'm constantly mystified by why soccer fans get their knicker in a bunch about people used a perfectly acceptable name for their code.

Emric--Association Football is an association of clubs playing the game of Football, call it want you want but thems the facts.

The Word Soccer was invented in England - The game was referred to as soccer from 1863 to 1881 just as Rugby was called Rugger. Apparently it was the in thing to add "ER" to random words in late middle to late 19th century England. The sport started to take the name "Football" in 1881 but it was to late for the sport to fully calm the name to itself as Rugby Football, American Football, Aussie Football, and Gallic Football had already well and truly established themselves as sports in their own right. As for the word football - it referred to any sport where the players were on foot - you see in the 18th and 19th century Europe, peasents and middle class played football, the upper classes played sports on their horses. This is the reason why "Football" in England / Europe is knowen as soccer in countries where other football codes were already established.

Having been to watch rugby tests at both venues, Suncorp is the better stadium. Westpac is still a good stadium, but it's an oval so it can hold one-day cricket internationals. I think crowds are down in Wellington because the novelty has worn off, especially for those who used to travel from other provinces that make up the Hurricanes franchise (Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, etc). They've also had games played in lousy weather lately. Another reason to watch games at Suncorp....

I hope not Emric. I hope the next teams that enter Super Rugby are from Japan and Argentina. I would also love to see a team from the Pacific but i guess money is the issue there. It would actually be great to see a conference with teams from Argentina, Pacific, Japan, USA, and chuck in a 6th SA team given their population. Either that or spread them around existing conferences.

The whites certainly used to claim it as their game in the dark days of apartheid, but the 'coloured' population have always been big on rugby. I remember watching them cheer the 1970 All Blacks behind barbed wire and behind the goal posts. Watch any All Black test in the Republic, especially in Cape Town, and you will see many suspicious looking 'Maori' cheering for the All Blacks. Hardly surprising the way the 'coloured' population were treated back in the day.

And then we can completely turn around the recent article "Super Rugby the reason for SH dominance" to explain that we now lose far more often than we used to because we flushed away our biggest advantage and most of our Test team now only play at the Aviva/Top 14 level rather than the top level, we get less money than we used to because we have so many less "Super" matches, and that our structures are now essentially the same as Europe but they have us beaten into a cocked hat for player numbers and money...

*swish* How did this comment get missed! :)

South Africa's population is a bit over twice ours (about fifty (50) million). I wouldn't consider that is "enormous" compared to us. What I would say, is that despite their levels of poverty and claims that it is a Whites only sport, the rugby market in South Africa is clearly infinately bigger than Australia's. I'd love to know the breakdown on advertising revenue though, because we have alwasy been told that South Africa brings home the most revenue (which is then distributed evenly).

The Werewolf - It just could be that Football is known as that because it is the biggest sport in that county. Therefore in NZ and Australia Rugby and Aussie Rules are known as Football or footy. In most countries Association Football is the biggest sport and therefore known as Football or footy.

And yet the East Coast media would have you believe no one watches rugby

In New Zealand it is refered to as Soccer also, sure the PC police like WW are trying to change the mindset but Soccer is engrained and its going to take a long long time before the majority refer to it as Football. I grew up and I still do go to the footy which is Rugby to me.

You have to take into consideration the sheer enormity of South Africas population in comparison to Australia and New Zealand. South Africa has more than twice the population of NZ and OZ combined

It can't be because of the quality of the team in Wellington. Could it be that the Cake tin is a bad ground,except for the fact that is where the Wallabies beat the South Africans in the RWC last year? From TV, it seems the crowd are far too distant from the action. From my seat at Suncorp, I could put my foot out and (almost) trip up any All Black if they dare get close to the try line.

The S15 is becoming like the NRL where half the team's get good crowd's and the other half get terrible crowd's and it's like a yo yo effect with it's the never same team's. BTW why will people not support Rugby in Wellington and in Durban.

Yes australia has adopted too many americanisms

What? That makes no sense. Rugby is a town in england where the local school in the 1820's changed the rules of football to play their own brand known as rugby football. By the 1860's the Football association was formed to ensure that their game had a seperate identity to the new brand of rugby football. At that point two governing bodies were formed. The Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Football Association (FA).