Two days after the US Eagles faced the Maori All Blacks in front of a sold-out crowd at PPL Park in Philadelphia, New Zealand’s national team, the All Blacks, have announced that they are looking to play in the US next November.
Put it this way – on Saturday a fired-up Eagles team lost the best sports game you may not have seen this weekend by a creditably close scoreline, 29-19. In doing so, they thrilled their second big crowd of the year (the first saw a stronger team lose 15-12 to Ireland in Houston in June), illustrated the potential of rugby as a big-time spectator sport and unearthed some exciting international prospects, not least among them the try-scoring Life University No8, Cam Dolan. Bar the victory that for a moment seemed genuinely possible, it would be fair to say the evening delivered. In spades.
But that match, haka and all, was against what is to all intents and purposes New Zealand’s second team. Granted, the Maori would nonetheless expect to beat many of the top 10 teams in the world, but so much for the appetiser. Now, the big boys are coming – quite possibly, to New York.
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Speaking after the All Blacks’ 26-19 victory over France on Saturday, which was played in front of 80,000 at the Stade de France in Paris, the New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive, Steve Tew, said: “Our first preference is the east coast and to play somewhere close to New York, but we’ve got to find the appropriate stadium. It’s got to be available that weekend, and it’s got to be big enough.”
The All Blacks coach, Steve Hansen, added: “The States is not somewhere we’ve been a lot, so it’s an exciting place to go. What approach we take to that game, we’ll have to see where we’re sitting.”
Any game in the US in November 2014 would fall a year before the All Blacks travel to England to defend their world title, which they won at home in 2011.
There is immediate precedent for an All Blacks match on foreign shores, before the team travels on to Europe. This month, the All Blacks opened their autumn tour against Japan in Tokyo, winning 54-6. That match fell outside the International Rugby Board’s window for mandatory release, when professional clubs must allow national teams to select the players they employ. Any 2014 match in the US would fall on the equivalent weekend. Tew said:
Japan was very successful, we were very happy with that, and we will be looking for a similar game in North America this time next year. We’re advanced but there’s still a bit to go. The hardest thing actually is who we play. We’ve got to sort that out, first and foremost.
It is unlikely that the No1 All Blacks will face the 18th-ranked Eagles, whose regular diet will be in evidence over the next two Saturdays, when they play Georgia (16) in Rustavi and Russia (19) in north London. The main concern is that the All Blacks face viable opposition, and however great the strides made by the Eagles on Saturday, it should be remembered that coach Mike Tolkin was unable to call on European-based players like Chris Wyles of Saracens, Blaine Scully of Leicester and Samu Manoa of Northampton – for a game that fell within the IRB window.
Steve Tew is chief executive of the New Zealand Rugby Union. Photograph: Marty Melville/Getty Images
Like the Maori game, however, an All Blacks game in the US would be backed by the insurance giant AIG, the team’s principle sponsor and a strong backer of rugby in the US. On Saturday, asked about motives for staging the game, Tew said: “It’s driven by the fact [coach] Steve [Hanson] would like another game.” However, he added: “It would be very helpful for us to play in the American market. AIG are based there, though we’re not committed contractually to do so.”
The All Blacks are the most recognisable and valuable brand in rugby – a fact which has made their appearances prized by their hosts and, sometimes, rather difficult to secure.
Tew is the man responsible for that brand, and he knows that in seeking to strengthen it, he cannot afford to weaken it by having the team face opponents who cannot hope to compete. Of the possible US game, therefore, he said:
It’s likely to be against some sort of invitational side. We’ll do our very best, but there will be a little bit of a compromise. No doubt some people will see what we’re trying to achieve and accept it and others will be critical.
Earlier this year, an attempt to pit a major overseas team – the Lions, from Johannesburg – in two games against an invitational squad of Canadian and American players was cancelled. According to the South African province, this was in part because of concerns about the strength of the opposition. It is worth noting, though, that in June two American players, Manoa and Taku Ngwenya of Biarritz, played for the invitational Barbarians against the British and Irish Lions in Hong Kong.
The All Blacks have faced major international opposition abroad before, playing Australia in Hong Kong in 2008 and 2010 and Tokyo in 2009. For a while, such a Bledisloe Cup Test was headed for Denver. The Wallabies are unlikely to provide opposition in the US in 2014, however, as three such Tests are already on the schedule. South Africa’s Springboks, the other major southern-hemisphere power, do not play outside the IRB window and Argentina, who make up the Rugby Championship, are heavily reliant on players contracted to European clubs. So are Tonga, Fiji and Samoa, who have not formed a Pacific Islanders team since 2008.
When it comes to where any game will be played, the US east coast has history. Red Bull Arena, the home of Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls in Harrison, New Jersey, has hosted international rugby. In 2008, the Eagles hosted the Irish province Munster at Rentschler Field in Hartford, Connecticut, the home of Huskies football.
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As it happens, the All Blacks have only played two full internationals against the Eagles. In the 1991 World Cup, when the game was still amateur and tries were worth four points not five, a creditable US display resulted in a 46-6 defeat at Gloucester. In 1913, at Berkeley, the New Zealanders won 51-3. Then, tries were worth three – and the tourists scored 13. As the British rugby historian Huw Richards has recently pointed out, that tour did not do wonders for the development of rugby in America.
Both sides of the deal will be hoping the All Blacks’ 2014 game, if it comes to pass and whatever the opposition turns out to be, will do rather more.
Article source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/rugby-league-giants-reclaim-top-spot-salford-rout-162604644.html
The All Blacks are coming! Possibly. USA rugby awaits the world champions
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