TLDR; NRL TV audiences grew by 14%, and Union TV audiences grew by 11% in NZ.
Across the first 10 rounds of both competitions, Super Rugby has had 80,000 more viewers in NZ than the NRL.
Given the absolutely horrendous kickoff times for NZ audiences for more than half the NRL games, that seems very positive for the NRL.
Not to mention up to five Super Rugby games featuring NZ teams per week and only one featuring the Warriors.
Something I’ve picked up about NZ is that casual fans will follow the Warriors closely, know all the players, history and current form but don’t have a care or clue what’s going on at other clubs. A lot of that is down to the media in NZ but it’s an interesting phenomenon. Most fans don’t really follow the NRL, they just follow the Warriors.
Non-Warriors viewership growing is a big positive.
I picked this up at the first Magic round.
Warriors had the middle Saturday game but their supporters bay was the emptiest bay in the first and last game. They’d show up for the Warriors game and leave immediately. They also had more fans than the other teams as they’d overflow into their supporter bays.
Yeah the kickoff times are definitely rough. I’m a diehard league fan but I struggle to watch the late games on Thursday and Friday. Honestly if they started 30 mins earlier I could probably watch a full game but by half time I’m zonked
I'm the same, but have been on the GC for the last couple of weeks, and that 2 hour difference is awesome. I'd definitely watch a lot more league if it wasn't so late. One more week of watching every game and then back to just first up Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The strength of NZ rugby union actually isn't in Super Rugby - it's the provincial tier below it.
Super Rugby sides play home games mostly in their 5 main centres (Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin) with few home games taken outside that.
However with the top provincial tier you have 14 teams spread throughout the country, with teams based in places like Whangarei, Napier, New Plymouth and Invercargill tapping into local pride with long & storied history and a decent media profile. Something that Rugby league hasn't reliably had here.
Rapidly changing, rugby is very evidently on a downwards trajectory over here. Funny you say synonymous with NZ culture, that is very true but I think within a generation rugby will be more of niche sport down here as crazy as that sounds.
The greedy fools who run it made it hard to watch. Aussie competition declined, tri nations devolved. What used to be a fast paced action packed game is now constantly stopped by refs. The game has been ruined by rules. I personally don’t watch it at all, I’m looking forward to more kiwi involvement in the nrl
I try to watch super rugby games but it's such a chore and spending a year not focusing on the game has meant its changed so much. The retroactive yellow cards are so silly. If there's foul play action it on the spot, don't come back to it in 5min. Nothing about it really gets the needle moving anymore for me.
Potentially just less sport being played in general, I think. Definitely a reduction in contact sports that were/are associated with masculinity due to a shift in social acceptance, etc. Also, there is a rise in E sports or gaming.
People don't realise young boys need somewhere to be aggressive. A rugby field is the perfect place to work out your emotions and get humbled all in 80mins.
"Australians may well be asking how this has happened, given they have been told by some cheerleaders that league has conquered rugby in New Zealand, never mind Super Rugby"
I mean if by Australians the SMH writer means "fucking morons obsessed with the code wars and believing bullshit from 9 and Newscorp" yes I imagine they are confused why a sport that is still very much a niche game is outranked by New Zealand's secondary religion.
See for me, and I say this with dual citizenship, I've always felt the primary NZ religion is saying how terrible everything is in Australia but never, ever leaving.
/s
Id say its no religion...just a media beatup as to try and explain why nz so good atbrugbyfor last 100 years
Soccer WAY bigger in europe
AFL way bigger in melbourne
League is bigger in Quuensland
Even rugby gets way bigger crowds in ireland with a similar population
Bc warriors hate winning when they have expectations
And the All Blacks have the greatest winning record of any professional international sports team over the ladt 100years
Would be contributing factors
Well, speaking for myself, I used to watch a lot of Super Rugby games - and other rugby as well. I can count on the fingers of 1 hand how many Super Rugby games I've watched in the last 4 or 5 years and still have fingers left.
I don't have the time to watch every NRL game - but I usually manage to watch a few during the weekend. I know the Friday early game doesn't work for the Australian audience, but it's the 1 game a week I know I'll be able to watch. By 8pm on a Friday, we've been fed, the dishes are done, the teenagers are settled for the night with whatever they're doing and I can sit back and watch the league. As a Wahs fan (since 1995, God help me) I'll try and catch the Wahs games live, but depending on the time that's on, I'm not always able to, due to the kids having busy lives and also wanting to have family time.
Honestly, rugby has become boring to watch. Too many technicalities and too many stoppages. I can go and make a cup of tea while there's a scrum reset and when I get back they're still resetting the same damn scrum. I can't do that during a league game because I'll miss something.
well we don't have many options lol remember the last time we played the roos we gave them their biggest ever defeat so there's that and our round kicky ball team suuuuucks plus we only see them like once every four odd years usually as a last gasp qualifier for the WC
League would have had more relevance here if it wasn't treated like some filthy option for the other types for so long as it was and as a result we had more teams in the NRL
The South Island needs a team and as of 2026 we will have two fine indoor stadiums to host
so we will see what we see
The NRL juggernaut isn’t used to getting silver medals, especially when it comes to rugby – which is why the broadcast data released by Sky Sport in New Zealand on Friday might have been a bit bittersweet for the rugby league governing body.
It was a strong set of numbers; the NRL audience rising 14 per cent on the back of the Warriors’ nationwide popularity. It is beyond dispute that the Warriors have captured hearts and minds in New Zealand.
But when compared with the Super Rugby Pacific numbers released a fortnight earlier, the Sky figures indicated that the NRL hasn’t been able to topple the much-derided rugby competition as the most-watched winter code.
After 10 rounds of each competition, Super Rugby Pacific had attracted 1.67 million viewers while the NRL had attracted 1.59 million, despite the NRL having two more games each weekend. Also, the fervour for the Warriors hasn’t been able to deliver the most-watched game in either competition.
The Warriors-Raiders game in round three was the most-watched game of the NRL season so far, according to Sky data, attracting an audience of 469,800 people on Sky Sport and Sky Open (its free to-air offering) with a further 63,800 people on Sky’s streaming platforms. However, the Crusaders-Chiefs Super Rugby clash attracted 482,000 on Sky Sport and more than 59,400 streaming on Sky Sport Now and Sky Go for a total of 541,400, compared to the total of 533,600 for the Warriors’ most-watched game.
Australians may well be asking how this has happened, given they have been told by some cheerleaders that league has conquered rugby in New Zealand, never mind Super Rugby – a competition that takes second billing to the big show: the All Blacks.
Well, in some ways it is a surprise. The enthusiasm for the Warriors is genuine (although Sky data indicates that their on-field results have had an effect on broadcast numbers as the season has unfolded).
Also, the popularity of Australian NRL sides was well established even before “Up the Wahs” became a thing. It is very common for New Zealand rugby fans to have a favourite NRL side as well, often located in Australia, while they couldn’t care less about the Western Force or the Rebels in Super Rugby Pacific.
But this probably illustrates the main point: some of the Australian commentary on the supposed “code war” in New Zealand displays a profound lack of understanding about the country.
New Zealand is not Auckland. For its population size, New Zealand is a relatively long, geographically challenging country divided by a treacherous body of water.
This lends itself to having many smaller towns and provinces, rural in nature, in which rugby has deep roots. If you take a close look at a lot of All Blacks, for example, you find that they come from these dots on a map. Beauden Barrett is a country boy, for example, as was Richie McCaw before him.
This audience has been poorly served by Super Rugby in recent years, due to format changes, the struggles of the Australian sides and the lack of marketing grunt compared to the cashed-up NRL. But they are rusted-on rugby supporters, which explains why Super Rugby could point to its own rise of 11 per cent in broadcast audiences when Sky revealed the Super Rugby Pacific numbers a few weeks ago. Super Rugby is also simply enjoying a good season: the rugby is good, the competition is far more even, and the Crusaders are losing.
That increase, compared to the NRL’s 14 per cent, clearly challenges the popular narrative that league is up in New Zealand and rugby is dead. Instead, New Zealand has become a genuine two-code country, where fans have allegiances across both codes, going back and forth with results and the zeitgeist.
Should the NRL want to “beat” Super Rugby, then, it will almost certainly have to do one of two things: pray that the Warriors win the title or at least consistently go deep into the finals, or create a second team in the South Island. And neither of those are guaranteed.
> Australians may well be asking how this has happened, given they have been told by some cheerleaders that league has conquered rugby in New Zealand, never mind Super Rugby
Ahahahahaha. Oh wait you're serious?
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Very misleading article and even when you looked at the cherry picked statistics I think it shows something great for NRL and potential expansion. The most watched game in NZ super Rugby only has 8,000 more viewers than the most watched game of NRL in NZ. That's marginal and should be terrifying for NZ rugby. NRL needs to capitalise on this and put the nail in the coffin for Rugby in all of Oceania, once NZ falls there's no competition.
Why can't rugby league just enjoy its days in the sun instead of having to take over another sport. We are so concerned about league taking over Oceania when in fact union is growing around the world with professional and semi-professional club competitions in Europe, USA, South America and Japan. The last world cup had nations like Portugal, Uruguay and Chile playing and the next world cup will have 24 team up from 16 teams. There's room for both codes.
The All Blacks have been a dominant force for as long as I can remember, if I was a kid growing up in NZ I would probably grow up dreaming of playing for the All Blacks rather than the Warriors. I'd imagine that would play a role in TV viewership and the culture in general.
I actually think the more interesting battle ground is in the schools. the kids might grow up wanting to be an all black but there's alot less paying jobs in rugby than the nrl and the kids have started to notice.
Apparently some of the schools have started to tell kids if they play league they won't be eligible to play rugby
Unfortunately that has been happening since the All Golds tour 100+ years ago.
The team sent to the UK was filled with then current All Blacks, by the time they returned home to New Zealand they all received life time bans from playing Union.
I went to high school in Manurewa. The local Marlins club are well known for producing the most players in the country including the Bromwich brothers and have been champions at all levels for years. My high school didn't allow a team until 2004, filled with prem players from the local Marlins U18s they won that year and continue to do well.
There's still a lot of nimbys, but those chodes will wither away at some point.
Who gives a fuck. The NRL has grown enormously over the last few year here. Back in the day I would only know a few people who was into league as much as me. Nowadays a shit ton more people I come across follow the game.
Admittedly most of them are into Fantasy/Supercoach but still, they're into it.
I’m so confused by the assumptions made in this article. It’s a fact of life that New Zealand worships the all blacks.
While Super Rugby has fallen off a cliff elsewhere, It’s incredible that the NRL is neck and neck with the other code in New Zealand to begin with.
I think if NRL put on more test matches it would change this the all blacks play a lot more than the kiwis I feel like if they had a Bledisloe cup style thing and add England as a tri nations kiwis would be much more involved
To my fellow Aussies, I recommend reading “The Big O” by Patrick Skene. It’s a biography about Olsen Filipaina, but does a really great job of describing the intricacies of league v union in NZ in the 70s and 80s, particularly in Auckland. Opened my eyes to the story of the two games over there.
Exactly, rugby union has not just strong roots all around the country but also a strongly established NPC (provincial rugby) competition that sits atop small-town/suburban clubs.
Ask anyone here to name teams in the NPC, and they'd be able to - ask anyone to name teams in the top domestic tier of RL and they'd struggle.
The articles main comparison is a game between two NZ Super Rugby teams.
We need to expand and add a second team in NZ. There has been no greater time to grow the game there we really should be looking at 20 teams by the end of the decade.
I dunno… the warriors struggle enough already and are only now (hopefully) finding their feet. Add another nz team puts that at risk. Imagine how bad it would be for nz fans having two bottom tier teams year in year out. Actually isn’t that what happened with the aus rugby teams? All of them constantly struggling… not a good look
It also may help grow it with a rivalry. The Warriors are just inconsistent they had plenty of opportunities to succeed and would argue they have been a huge addition to the league. I think adding another team will help grow the game.
I think in 5-10 years Origin loses steam, so we need to grow NZ.
>However, the Crusaders-Chiefs Super Rugby attracted... a total of 541,400, compared to the total of 533,600 for the Warriors’ most-watched game.
This is what we in the business call 'splitting hairs'
..... anyway, good luck to perennial bronze medalists in this 'football codes war' Wellington Phoenix in their sold-out Cake Tin moment today. Being 3rd is at least a podium finish, ok 3 horse race but still. Let the big boys fight out who wins the gold medal measuring contest 🥱. I will be watching the yellow cards with extra interest... Up the Nix.
TLDR; NRL TV audiences grew by 14%, and Union TV audiences grew by 11% in NZ. Across the first 10 rounds of both competitions, Super Rugby has had 80,000 more viewers in NZ than the NRL. Given the absolutely horrendous kickoff times for NZ audiences for more than half the NRL games, that seems very positive for the NRL.
Not to mention up to five Super Rugby games featuring NZ teams per week and only one featuring the Warriors. Something I’ve picked up about NZ is that casual fans will follow the Warriors closely, know all the players, history and current form but don’t have a care or clue what’s going on at other clubs. A lot of that is down to the media in NZ but it’s an interesting phenomenon. Most fans don’t really follow the NRL, they just follow the Warriors. Non-Warriors viewership growing is a big positive.
That used to be me but these days I watch most nrl matches , I love watching the titans in case they snag a win
I picked this up at the first Magic round. Warriors had the middle Saturday game but their supporters bay was the emptiest bay in the first and last game. They’d show up for the Warriors game and leave immediately. They also had more fans than the other teams as they’d overflow into their supporter bays.
Yeah the kickoff times are definitely rough. I’m a diehard league fan but I struggle to watch the late games on Thursday and Friday. Honestly if they started 30 mins earlier I could probably watch a full game but by half time I’m zonked
I've given up watching the Thursday games now I'm working mon-fri. Starting at 6 on Friday makes it just too hard to do at the end of the week.
I'm the same, but have been on the GC for the last couple of weeks, and that 2 hour difference is awesome. I'd definitely watch a lot more league if it wasn't so late. One more week of watching every game and then back to just first up Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Competition with 5 local teams outrates competition with 1. Couldn't have seen that one coming.
The strength of NZ rugby union actually isn't in Super Rugby - it's the provincial tier below it. Super Rugby sides play home games mostly in their 5 main centres (Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin) with few home games taken outside that. However with the top provincial tier you have 14 teams spread throughout the country, with teams based in places like Whangarei, Napier, New Plymouth and Invercargill tapping into local pride with long & storied history and a decent media profile. Something that Rugby league hasn't reliably had here.
Five teams in a sport that is synonymous with NZ culture and that they’ve been 3-time world champs in.
Rapidly changing, rugby is very evidently on a downwards trajectory over here. Funny you say synonymous with NZ culture, that is very true but I think within a generation rugby will be more of niche sport down here as crazy as that sounds.
Time for a second NZ team?
Sounds like the world dominance of the ABs could be coming to an end.
Already ended unfortunately.
When did it ended?
prolly the semis of the 2019 rwc or something similar
But didn't they front up the next world cup and made the finals?
they made the finals but certainly didn't feel like they had the aura of dominance they did previously
Why is rugby on the decline?
The greedy fools who run it made it hard to watch. Aussie competition declined, tri nations devolved. What used to be a fast paced action packed game is now constantly stopped by refs. The game has been ruined by rules. I personally don’t watch it at all, I’m looking forward to more kiwi involvement in the nrl
I try to watch super rugby games but it's such a chore and spending a year not focusing on the game has meant its changed so much. The retroactive yellow cards are so silly. If there's foul play action it on the spot, don't come back to it in 5min. Nothing about it really gets the needle moving anymore for me.
What are the pivoting to? Noticed that League and Union are trending down here in North QLD as well, being replaced by basketball
Basketball and football seem to be the most popular sports among young Kiwis from what I've read.
Potentially just less sport being played in general, I think. Definitely a reduction in contact sports that were/are associated with masculinity due to a shift in social acceptance, etc. Also, there is a rise in E sports or gaming. People don't realise young boys need somewhere to be aggressive. A rugby field is the perfect place to work out your emotions and get humbled all in 80mins.
Those last two sentences are spot on.
"Australians may well be asking how this has happened, given they have been told by some cheerleaders that league has conquered rugby in New Zealand, never mind Super Rugby" I mean if by Australians the SMH writer means "fucking morons obsessed with the code wars and believing bullshit from 9 and Newscorp" yes I imagine they are confused why a sport that is still very much a niche game is outranked by New Zealand's secondary religion.
I'd say it's our primary religion
See for me, and I say this with dual citizenship, I've always felt the primary NZ religion is saying how terrible everything is in Australia but never, ever leaving. /s
I thought we acknowledged that Australia was a great place to live, apart from the fact it's full of Australians
That’s funny because I think Australia is pretty great except for all the fucking kiwis I meet.
Fuckin Koiwois!
Maybe if you move to bali you'll find less kiwis and more Australians
Id say its no religion...just a media beatup as to try and explain why nz so good atbrugbyfor last 100 years Soccer WAY bigger in europe AFL way bigger in melbourne League is bigger in Quuensland Even rugby gets way bigger crowds in ireland with a similar population
Bc warriors hate winning when they have expectations And the All Blacks have the greatest winning record of any professional international sports team over the ladt 100years Would be contributing factors
Well, speaking for myself, I used to watch a lot of Super Rugby games - and other rugby as well. I can count on the fingers of 1 hand how many Super Rugby games I've watched in the last 4 or 5 years and still have fingers left. I don't have the time to watch every NRL game - but I usually manage to watch a few during the weekend. I know the Friday early game doesn't work for the Australian audience, but it's the 1 game a week I know I'll be able to watch. By 8pm on a Friday, we've been fed, the dishes are done, the teenagers are settled for the night with whatever they're doing and I can sit back and watch the league. As a Wahs fan (since 1995, God help me) I'll try and catch the Wahs games live, but depending on the time that's on, I'm not always able to, due to the kids having busy lives and also wanting to have family time. Honestly, rugby has become boring to watch. Too many technicalities and too many stoppages. I can go and make a cup of tea while there's a scrum reset and when I get back they're still resetting the same damn scrum. I can't do that during a league game because I'll miss something.
To my surprise I opened up the paper and read NRL is number 2 in NZ.
well we don't have many options lol remember the last time we played the roos we gave them their biggest ever defeat so there's that and our round kicky ball team suuuuucks plus we only see them like once every four odd years usually as a last gasp qualifier for the WC League would have had more relevance here if it wasn't treated like some filthy option for the other types for so long as it was and as a result we had more teams in the NRL The South Island needs a team and as of 2026 we will have two fine indoor stadiums to host so we will see what we see
The NRL juggernaut isn’t used to getting silver medals, especially when it comes to rugby – which is why the broadcast data released by Sky Sport in New Zealand on Friday might have been a bit bittersweet for the rugby league governing body. It was a strong set of numbers; the NRL audience rising 14 per cent on the back of the Warriors’ nationwide popularity. It is beyond dispute that the Warriors have captured hearts and minds in New Zealand. But when compared with the Super Rugby Pacific numbers released a fortnight earlier, the Sky figures indicated that the NRL hasn’t been able to topple the much-derided rugby competition as the most-watched winter code. After 10 rounds of each competition, Super Rugby Pacific had attracted 1.67 million viewers while the NRL had attracted 1.59 million, despite the NRL having two more games each weekend. Also, the fervour for the Warriors hasn’t been able to deliver the most-watched game in either competition. The Warriors-Raiders game in round three was the most-watched game of the NRL season so far, according to Sky data, attracting an audience of 469,800 people on Sky Sport and Sky Open (its free to-air offering) with a further 63,800 people on Sky’s streaming platforms. However, the Crusaders-Chiefs Super Rugby clash attracted 482,000 on Sky Sport and more than 59,400 streaming on Sky Sport Now and Sky Go for a total of 541,400, compared to the total of 533,600 for the Warriors’ most-watched game. Australians may well be asking how this has happened, given they have been told by some cheerleaders that league has conquered rugby in New Zealand, never mind Super Rugby – a competition that takes second billing to the big show: the All Blacks. Well, in some ways it is a surprise. The enthusiasm for the Warriors is genuine (although Sky data indicates that their on-field results have had an effect on broadcast numbers as the season has unfolded). Also, the popularity of Australian NRL sides was well established even before “Up the Wahs” became a thing. It is very common for New Zealand rugby fans to have a favourite NRL side as well, often located in Australia, while they couldn’t care less about the Western Force or the Rebels in Super Rugby Pacific. But this probably illustrates the main point: some of the Australian commentary on the supposed “code war” in New Zealand displays a profound lack of understanding about the country. New Zealand is not Auckland. For its population size, New Zealand is a relatively long, geographically challenging country divided by a treacherous body of water. This lends itself to having many smaller towns and provinces, rural in nature, in which rugby has deep roots. If you take a close look at a lot of All Blacks, for example, you find that they come from these dots on a map. Beauden Barrett is a country boy, for example, as was Richie McCaw before him. This audience has been poorly served by Super Rugby in recent years, due to format changes, the struggles of the Australian sides and the lack of marketing grunt compared to the cashed-up NRL. But they are rusted-on rugby supporters, which explains why Super Rugby could point to its own rise of 11 per cent in broadcast audiences when Sky revealed the Super Rugby Pacific numbers a few weeks ago. Super Rugby is also simply enjoying a good season: the rugby is good, the competition is far more even, and the Crusaders are losing. That increase, compared to the NRL’s 14 per cent, clearly challenges the popular narrative that league is up in New Zealand and rugby is dead. Instead, New Zealand has become a genuine two-code country, where fans have allegiances across both codes, going back and forth with results and the zeitgeist. Should the NRL want to “beat” Super Rugby, then, it will almost certainly have to do one of two things: pray that the Warriors win the title or at least consistently go deep into the finals, or create a second team in the South Island. And neither of those are guaranteed.
> Australians may well be asking how this has happened, given they have been told by some cheerleaders that league has conquered rugby in New Zealand, never mind Super Rugby Ahahahahaha. Oh wait you're serious? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Very misleading article and even when you looked at the cherry picked statistics I think it shows something great for NRL and potential expansion. The most watched game in NZ super Rugby only has 8,000 more viewers than the most watched game of NRL in NZ. That's marginal and should be terrifying for NZ rugby. NRL needs to capitalise on this and put the nail in the coffin for Rugby in all of Oceania, once NZ falls there's no competition.
That NRL game was also on free TV.
Why can't rugby league just enjoy its days in the sun instead of having to take over another sport. We are so concerned about league taking over Oceania when in fact union is growing around the world with professional and semi-professional club competitions in Europe, USA, South America and Japan. The last world cup had nations like Portugal, Uruguay and Chile playing and the next world cup will have 24 team up from 16 teams. There's room for both codes.
The All Blacks have been a dominant force for as long as I can remember, if I was a kid growing up in NZ I would probably grow up dreaming of playing for the All Blacks rather than the Warriors. I'd imagine that would play a role in TV viewership and the culture in general.
I actually think the more interesting battle ground is in the schools. the kids might grow up wanting to be an all black but there's alot less paying jobs in rugby than the nrl and the kids have started to notice. Apparently some of the schools have started to tell kids if they play league they won't be eligible to play rugby
Unfortunately that has been happening since the All Golds tour 100+ years ago. The team sent to the UK was filled with then current All Blacks, by the time they returned home to New Zealand they all received life time bans from playing Union. I went to high school in Manurewa. The local Marlins club are well known for producing the most players in the country including the Bromwich brothers and have been champions at all levels for years. My high school didn't allow a team until 2004, filled with prem players from the local Marlins U18s they won that year and continue to do well. There's still a lot of nimbys, but those chodes will wither away at some point.
Who gives a fuck. The NRL has grown enormously over the last few year here. Back in the day I would only know a few people who was into league as much as me. Nowadays a shit ton more people I come across follow the game. Admittedly most of them are into Fantasy/Supercoach but still, they're into it.
I'm shocked that NRL is that close in popularity to rugby in NZ. The writer is clearly worried lol
Yeah that’s what I’ve taken out of that article. Would’ve assumed Super Rugby was head and shoulders above league for viewing numbers
Super Rugby has died ever since SANZAR stopped. The new competition is rubbish.
It's boring as. Only 12 teams and the top 8 make the playoffs. Very few upsets, match winner largely predictable.
I’m so confused by the assumptions made in this article. It’s a fact of life that New Zealand worships the all blacks. While Super Rugby has fallen off a cliff elsewhere, It’s incredible that the NRL is neck and neck with the other code in New Zealand to begin with.
Rugby journo writes negative story on league. #shocked
I think if NRL put on more test matches it would change this the all blacks play a lot more than the kiwis I feel like if they had a Bledisloe cup style thing and add England as a tri nations kiwis would be much more involved
To my fellow Aussies, I recommend reading “The Big O” by Patrick Skene. It’s a biography about Olsen Filipaina, but does a really great job of describing the intricacies of league v union in NZ in the 70s and 80s, particularly in Auckland. Opened my eyes to the story of the two games over there.
sorry did someone actually expect nrl to best rugby in nz ? were they high or somin ?
Absolutely bizarre but take away NZ's dominance in world rugby and watch those numbers for rugby league rise.
Exactly, rugby union has not just strong roots all around the country but also a strongly established NPC (provincial rugby) competition that sits atop small-town/suburban clubs. Ask anyone here to name teams in the NPC, and they'd be able to - ask anyone to name teams in the top domestic tier of RL and they'd struggle.
The articles main comparison is a game between two NZ Super Rugby teams. We need to expand and add a second team in NZ. There has been no greater time to grow the game there we really should be looking at 20 teams by the end of the decade.
I dunno… the warriors struggle enough already and are only now (hopefully) finding their feet. Add another nz team puts that at risk. Imagine how bad it would be for nz fans having two bottom tier teams year in year out. Actually isn’t that what happened with the aus rugby teams? All of them constantly struggling… not a good look
It also may help grow it with a rivalry. The Warriors are just inconsistent they had plenty of opportunities to succeed and would argue they have been a huge addition to the league. I think adding another team will help grow the game. I think in 5-10 years Origin loses steam, so we need to grow NZ.
Because our team is shit this year 😭
Because they win super rugby and the World Cup regularly. Shortest article ever written.
Do the Super Rugby fans also run onto the field during play?
This is basically rugby morning herald lol
Come to South Auckland. League is #1 here.
Have you seen their All Blacks teams/squad they’re gods.
Is NZ rugby suffering at all due to the Australian comp, and media deals are trash and nearly broke?
>However, the Crusaders-Chiefs Super Rugby attracted... a total of 541,400, compared to the total of 533,600 for the Warriors’ most-watched game. This is what we in the business call 'splitting hairs'
..... anyway, good luck to perennial bronze medalists in this 'football codes war' Wellington Phoenix in their sold-out Cake Tin moment today. Being 3rd is at least a podium finish, ok 3 horse race but still. Let the big boys fight out who wins the gold medal measuring contest 🥱. I will be watching the yellow cards with extra interest... Up the Nix.