Editorial: All Black fans forced to lump it again

All Blacks fans face a late night on Thursday to enjoy the first Bledisloe Cup match against the Wallabies. Photo / Peter Meecham, File

Editorial

EDITORIAL

Whatever the agonies of their current season, throughout their history the All Blacks have won far more matches than they've lost.

In rugby's professional era, with the arrival of pay-to-view television in 1996, the gap between the All Blacks and the teams that lose to them has become even more pronounced. The biggest losers? All Blacks fans.

We are the people upon whose loyalty the All Blacks' empire is built – we are reassured by NZ Rugby and the marketing teams that sell sponsors' products around the sport that our bond with the game is special.

Yet the scheduling of the game we love is so often in the most awful timeslot available. Watch a major sports event anywhere in the world, and the show starts while the sun shines. Meanwhile, Kiwi rugby fans are expected to show up at wintry, windswept stadia in the dead of night.

That's how it is that the All Blacks kick off in the first Bledisloe Cup match of the year at 9.45pm (NZT) on Thursday.

The match is being played in Melbourne, where the soil has long been dead to the charm of rugby's seed, on a day and at a time to suit the schedules of rival codes – both the AFL and NRL are into their competition playoffs.

Normally, such an offensive timeslot would have no impact on the viewing numbers among Kiwi fans. But this is no normal year – the 2022 All Blacks have lost more games than they've won.

Is it worth staying up on a midweek night to watch an average team filling a moribund timeslot in another country's TV schedules?