English rugby captain Marlie Packer has voiced her disappointment at the crowd sizes in New Zealand for the WXV 1 tournament after leading her side to the inaugural title.
The tournament stretched over three weeks, with three tests played across two days in each. Over the first two weeks, played in Wellington and Dunedin, about 10,000 attended games across the two days with the most sizeable crowds at Black Ferns tests.
The crowd was noticeably larger in Auckland on Saturday for the final day of matches, which included a World Cup final rematch between the Black Ferns and England. However, that number still paled in comparison to some of the crowd sizes that were attracted during last year’s World Cup.
“I thought the tournament in itself was a really successful tournament. We want to be playing the best teams in the world and there’s no better place to do it; being in New Zealand, off the back of the World Cup and to carry on that legacy of the World Cup and that buzz around it,” Packer said.
“As a player, it was disappointing with the fans. I’m not going to lie to you, the stadiums were empty, weren’t as much as we were expecting, but that doesn’t take away anything from the game. We’re putting performances in and we’re loving what we’re doing. To play the top teams in the world, I know the squad will travel anywhere to do that because we want to be playing in the biggest games there is.”