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?