NZ Rugby World No 183 Dec 2016 - Jan 2017

THIS SHOULD BE KNOWN as the year of realisation. It was this year that it must have dawned on many followers that rugby is gaining a genuine footprint and, 20 years into its professional life, many of the established orders are being challenged. That was perhaps best illustrated in Chicago when Ireland, for the time in 111 years of trying, beat the All Blacks. It took them an age, but they got there. They had to endure any number of near things and sad stories along the way. The missed last minute conversion in 1972 that would have seen them win and not draw. Andy Dalton’s burrowing try in 1978 that saw the All Blacks escape late and keep their Grand Slam dream alive. Christchurch 2012 – Ireland had it in their…

OUR ROUND-UP OF THE RELEVANT AND RANDOM BITS OF INFORMATION THAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED AFTER YEARS OF REJECTION, a Pacific Island side could force its way into Super Rugby in 2018. There is, reportedly, more than $35 million of corporate money on the table to back a team to play in Fiji at a new 20,000 seat stadium close to Nadi Airport. Since Super Rugby launched in 1996, the Pacific Islands have been kept out of the picture as the executives running the game have feared it would be commercially disastrous to include a team from that region. No one has doubted the playing talent in the islands – a point Sanzaar chief executive Andy Marinos made at length earlier this year – but without the financial backing, they have been rejected. But Ben…

IT MIGHT SOUND a little far-fetched at the moment, but China want to become a world rugby super force. And they want to do it quickly. Too much? Maybe not. There are a couple of key factors that make it plausible. The first is that $100 million is going to be tipped into the game over the next 10 years by a Chinese entrepreneur. The second is that the Chinese government like rugby. They think it promotes good qualities like character, resilience and teamwork and, of course, because sevens is in the Olympics, it has an obvious end goal for those who play it. World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper spoke about the opportunity China presents when he was in London in November. “China has huge potential for anyone in the sporting business literally…

155,934 registered NZ players according to the NZ Rugby Union. MORE NEW ZEALANDERS are playing rugby than ever before. Numbers just released by the New Zealand Rugby Union show that there are now 155,934 registered players. That is up almost three per cent on the numbers playing in 2015 and the growth has been strongest in the key 5-12 age-group. But as much as this news is to be celebrated, it also shows how New Zealand’s playing resource is in fact tiny compared with other nations such as England, Australia and South Africa. England, after hosting the World Cup in 2015, were hoping to attract another one million players as part of their legacy plans. South Africa have 600,000-plus players and are hopeful they will get to one million in the not too distant future. But…

IRELAND HAVE ANNOUNCED more details on how they plan to host the 2023 World Cup if they win the rights to do so. Ireland, South Africa and France are fighting to win the rights to host the 2023 tournament and the former has presented a bid that looks strong. Ireland plan to use 12 stadiums in both Ireland and Northern Ireland and have won permission to use stadiums owned by the Gaelic Athletic Association. The GAA, as it’s known, doesn’t normally allow any non-Irish sports to be played at their stadiums, but has come to the party for the World Cup bid. That means that the massive Croker Park will be one of the venues and, while Ireland only has four million people, it will potentially be able to generate more ticket revenue than…

• North Harbour won the Mitre 10 Cup Championship. • Nah, seriously...they did. • The actual championship...yes. • No, not just one game...the whole kit and kaboodle. • Against proper teams yes. With grown men in them. • No one has mentioned match fixing, no...not yet. • Talking of match fixing...if you were inclined to try to do it...what would be the best method? • Rugby is not an easy game to deliberately manipulate. • Cricket is. Well, easier anyway. But not so much rugby. • Football’s most famous case of match fixing – which went to court three times and was never proven – allegedly involved two goal-keepers and a striker. Sensible enough – bribe the dude to miss goals and another to let them in. • The obvious equivalent in rugby is to go for the goalkicker –…