Crowds need to be part of the action

"Of the nine stadia hosting the World Cup, only two could be described as outsized"

- CHRIS HEWLETT

THE best part of 84,000 spectators congregated at “The G” for last weekend’s Bledisloe Cup contest in Melbourne, which was just about as good as it gets if you happen to be a rugby financier. For those of us who love sport for the contest rather than the balance sheet, the fun stopped when we realised the entire crowd could have been on the pitch and still not stopped the All Blacks from finding multiple routes to the Wallaby goalline.

We should have read it in the tealeaves, just as Allan Alaalatoa, the Australian captain, might have expected his pre-match stunt to backfire on him. It was, after all, a boomerang he placed on the turf as the visitors performed the throat-slitting version of their haka. Boomerangs are designed to come back – those that don’t are known as “sticks” – and as Alaalatoa was leaving the field on a stretcher, it was difficult not to think that when he chose his weapon, he chose too well.

Leaving all that aside, there is a legitimate question to be asked about Test venues and the muddled thinking surrounding them. The Australians are still in the process of creating a mass audience for the union game in Melbourne – you might say they are struggling to secure a mass audience for Australian rugby in Australia – so on the face of it, something close to an MCG fill-up is a notable achievement.