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Suggestions that the All Blacks could play midweek games in Australia next year were mere speculation, outgoing New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Chris Moller said today.
He also said suggestions from his Australian Rugby Rugby Union counterpart John O'Neill that the Bledisloe Cup would be at stake in next year's Hong Kong test was a far-fetched idea.
While the two countries were working through details of playing a test in Hong Kong late next year, Moller said it wouldn't be a Cup match.
"We have to understand that rugby (in Australia) struggles to get coverage. It is what -- the fourth-fifth (sporting) code in Australia? John is very good at talking to the media and he will regularly be in the media putting ideas out there," Moller told Radio Sport today.
He said he had heard through the media about possible midweek games in Australia against such teams as the Queensland Reds and New South Wales Waratahs around the two Bledisloe Cup matches there next season.
"I mean Sanzar can't even agree on the Philips Tri-Nations tour for next year let alone try the sort of things John is suggesting," Moller said.
'I think it's just the normal effort by John to boost the coverage of rugby in Australia.
"I'm not saying it's impossible (to play midweek matches next year) but it certainly will pose some challenges and certainly we've had no discussions in the New Zealand Rugby Union or with the All Blacks or anybody, so it's mere speculation at this moment."
He said the NZRU viewed the Hong Kong match as an ordinary test match.
"Our view, from the NZRU at this stage and we might change that view, is that it should not be a Bledisloe Cup. We will have three matches for the Bledisloe (Cup) next year -- two in Australia and one here -- and if we're going to play a Bledisloe Cup (match) in Hong Kong then is it a fourth match? Is it a one-off? All of those issues will have to be worked through.
"Our preliminary view is that it would be better just to play the test and see what sort of interest we get before we throw the Bledisloe on the line outside of Australasia."
O'Neill, eager to revive rugby's glory days in Australia, said "mini" (five or six games) All Blacks tours would recapture the public's interest in a manner similar to the highly successful visit of the British and Irish Lions in 2001.
He said the recent expansion of the Tri-Nations series, with Australia, New Zealand and South Africa playing each other three times, made his notion viable -- and certainly more appealing than hosting understrength teams from the northern hemisphere.
He suggested for the alternate years when the All Blacks and Springboks had to play two Tri-Nations tests in Australia that they came for two to three weeks and include mid-week games -- and vice versa.
"You may be able to argue the All Blacks versus the (Queensland) Reds, the All Blacks versus the Waratahs might provide a better and meaningful contest," O'Neill said comparing those games with understrength test teams from the northern hemisphere.
- NZPA
