O'Neill's 'Twickers' dreams shot down
Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:27
New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) officials have poured cold water on a concept of staging Bledisloe Cup matches at England's national stadium, Twickenham, in the near future.
Australian Rugby Union (ARU) Chief Executive John O'Neill was perhaps unsurprisingly the man who hatched the idea of playing at least one of Australia and New Zealand's traditional Bledisloe Cup ties in London in the near future.
The All Blacks will already be meeting the Wallabies in a Bledisloe tie in Hong Kong on November 1, and O'Neill seems keen on expanding on the idea of playing the matches in other parts of the world to raise the profile of the sport in areas where rugby is not yet established.
"The interest from all over the world in the fact that the All Blacks and Wallabies are playing in Asia is really significant, and it won't be the last time," O'Neill told News Ltd newspapers, referring to the scheduled November tie in Hong Kong.
"We may even play All Blacks and the Wallabies at Twickenham, that's not out of the question."
A Twickenham match involving the trans-Tasman rivals could potentially net a revenue of NZ$12.3-million (ZAR68-million), but that figure did not impress NZRU boss Steve Tew, who dismissed the suggestion out of hand.
"We're not actively canvassing that right now. We have mooted the possibility of taking a Super 14 game or Test match into the English market before but we would only do that if we had agreement from the English rugby union," Tew told the Sunday Star-Times.
Previously, plans have been mooted to take a Bledisloe Cup tie to the United States, with the Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado having been previously earmarked as a potential venue.
Despite denying the Twickenham developments, Tew didn't rule out any exotic locations for a Test against the Wallabies in future.
"As I think people know, we have had an idea we might play a test in the USA in Denver and there is the possibility we might play on the east coast of America.
"We are looking at all these options but nothing is well advanced and we're not working on a Twickenham test, or not of late.
"It's possible my Australian colleagues have been, but we certainly have not. We have a full programme this year and we're pretty close to having a full programme next year," Tew said.
The Sun-Herald
