New Zealand 2 will deal a massive blow to NZ rugby

[Ian Douglas]

Yep.

Aucklanders are passionate within Auckland, much like most bigger cities...South Aucklanders distinguish themselves from Eastsiders, Westies, The Shore etc.

You've also got the weird thing where South Aucklanders support Counties in the NPC yet the Chiefs (Waikato) in Super due to the old regional alignments.

The rest of NZ can't stand JAFAs, and JAFAs couldn't give a shit haha, the Warriors have done quite well captivating a fan base south of the Bombay's in the that regard.

Plenty of Kiwis are disillusioned by NZRU as they feel they don't get enough love - read: no tests outside of the big five cities, one super game a year which due to player loading may not include a full strength team etc. it's actually quite refreshing watching Heartland Champs games during NPC season, seeing real fans who are actually passionate about the teams they support.

You talking about teams/regions like northland, southland and Tasman etc?

I actually took a little interest in the NPC cup last season(2025) watching the highlights on YouTube and thought it was more enjoyable than super rugby.

i think this is where the future on domestic RU in New Zealand should be instead of super rugby imo.

 

[Ian Douglas]

The GB test in palmy in 96 was my first ever Kiwis game I went to, 2 main things I remember is Ridge starting an all in about 2 mins in and I was taller than SJ as a kid lol

Weren’t GB the better team in all 3 tests but blew the lead in all 3 games or is my memory playing tricks with me?

remember getting up early in England to watch the series as a kid. Happy days.

wish England would tour New Zealand again and play a 3 test series instead of New Zealand always touring England.

 

[Ian Douglas]

I'm not being argumentative for the sake of it, but I don't think this is true anymore, especially not in rugby terms. The Cantabs are more disliked these days.

I don't even think the Warriors needed to do well to capture the fan base, 95% of the country just became fans the moment the team was announced back in the early 90s.

I love/hate watch the Warriors year after year, I feel like I'm in an abusive relationship, and I should leave, but I never will and not for a Cantab team no matter how shiny their new stadium is.

I was a fan of the winfield cup as a kid and didn’t really have a team but quite liked Illawarra steelers because of their name and location right by the ocean lol!! But when the warriors entered the competition in 95’ I was instantly hooked because of the English connection and the fact that I always shouted for the kiwis against Australia.

The warriors were huge in that first season and maybe even bigger than today??

 

[Ian Douglas]

Wonder how nrl could capture that by playing more games in those regional centres

they could and should be I don’t think these regional towns can compete financially with the likes of Perth, cairns and Darwin etc?

It’s funny nz has so many decent/good medium sized rugby ground in regional towns but then Wellington and Auckland have poor rugby stadiums

mate these stadiums are better than some NRL stadium especially the recently upgraded one in new Plymouth which has a capacity of 25k-30k.

 

[Jamberoo]

they could and should be I don’t think these regional towns can compete financially with the likes of Perth, cairns and Darwin etc?

mate these stadiums are better than some NRL stadium especially the recently upgraded one in new Plymouth which has a capacity of 25k-30k.

Darwin (150k) and Cairns (180k) are also regional towns. Darwin‘s is extremely isolated. Napier has 70k, but 150k within 30km. These NZ towns can be used to grow RL in NZ.

 

[Matiunz]

You talking about teams/regions like northland, southland and Tasman etc?

I actually took a little interest in the NPC cup last season(2025) watching the highlights on YouTube and thought it was more enjoyable than super rugby.

i think this is where the future on domestic RU in New Zealand should be instead of super rugby imo.

NPC taps into the provincial pride a bit more, I enjoyed watching the Magpies more this season than say Hurricanes/Chiefs.
Beauty of it is the higher levels are rugby are a bit too samey same with the way the games gotten so formulaic. NPC teams have a bit more of an individual style and play much riskier lower percentage plays.

 

[Matiunz]

Weren’t GB the better team in all 3 tests but blew the lead in all 3 games or is my memory playing tricks with me?

remember getting up early in England to watch the series as a kid. Happy days.

wish England would tour New Zealand again and play a 3 test series instead of New Zealand always touring England.

It was the first time we’d won a series against GB in quite a few years and I think was a bit of a turning point that arguably saw us leapfrog GB. Been a pretty good rivalry since then and around the 2010s was arguably more exciting than original for a period.
Seems like an ages since we’ve played them

 

[Ian Douglas]

Darwin (150k) and Cairns (180k) are also regional towns. Darwin‘s is extremely isolated. Napier has 70k, but 150k within 30km. These NZ towns can be used to grow RL in NZ.

I agree but don’t think these regional NZ towns have the cash to pay NRL teams to play their home games there.

 

[Ian Douglas]

It was the first time we’d won a series against GB in quite a few years and I think was a bit of a turning point that arguably saw us leapfrog GB. Been a pretty good rivalry since then and around the 2010s was arguably more exciting than original for a period.
Seems like an ages since we’ve played them

100%

was a changing of the guard moment for me as you had world class players like Hanley, offiah, Davies and Schofield retired from international RL for GB and for New Zealand it not only saw the emergence of future kiwi legends like wiki and jones mixed in with established world class players like Pongia, Kearney, ridge and Barnett it also saw the entire starting kiwi 17 picked from the Aussie comps and not the English comp and New Zealand domestic comp.

 

[Gobsmacked]

I agree but don’t think these regional NZ towns have the cash to pay NRL teams to play their home games there.

The Warriors have only just now committed to Christchurch once a year, hopefully the Wellington ANZAC games becomes a mainstay, All stars in Hamilton.
But what about Dunedin? World class facility with a roof surely gets a good crowd with the scarcity of NRL there.
That's a big gap that should certainly be able to cover an NRL match.

 

[Ian Douglas]

The Warriors have only just now committed to Christchurch once a year, hopefully the Wellington ANZAC games becomes a mainstay, All stars in Hamilton.
But what about Dunedin? World class facility with a roof surely gets a good crowd with the scarcity of NRL there.
That's a big gap that should certainly be able to cover an NRL match.

If I was the warriors at the very least I would be playing all of their trial games on the road in New Zealand in places like Dunedin, Napier and new Plymouth etc.

 

[Matiunz]

The Warriors have only just now committed to Christchurch once a year, hopefully the Wellington ANZAC games becomes a mainstay, All stars in Hamilton.
But what about Dunedin? World class facility with a roof surely gets a good crowd with the scarcity of NRL there.
That's a big gap that should certainly be able to cover an NRL match.

Rotorua tends to get the All Stars game as it’s generally (culture wise anyways ) seen as a bit of a Māori capital- well Waikato in general but Rotorua is fairly central to Hamilton, Tauranga, Taupo, Whakatane, Tokoroa etc, and a few more provinces with higher Māori populations in Gisborne/Hawkes Bay/Taranaki not too far to travel
Dunedins had at least 1 if not more Warriors trial, I’m sure if South Island gets the nod they’ll get a yearly game

 

[Matiunz]

Darwin (150k) and Cairns (180k) are also regional towns. Darwin‘s is extremely isolated. Napier has 70k, but 150k within 30km. These NZ towns can be used to grow RL in NZ.

Napier is misleading in the sense that it has Hastings which has a slightly larger population like 20mins away, it’s pretty much the same urban area.
Alot of NZs population in the North Island is spread into towns within relatively short distances of each other that given time will eventually merge into each other

 

[Diesel]

Napier is misleading in the sense that it has Hastings which has a slightly larger population like 20mins away, it’s pretty much the same urban area.
Alot of NZs population in the North Island is spread into towns within relatively short distances of each other that given time will eventually merge into each other

Tauranga, Mount, Papamoa, Te Puke, Bethlehem, Te Puna is a very good example of this since the 90’s

 

[i0Nic]

The Warriors have only just now committed to Christchurch once a year, hopefully the Wellington ANZAC games becomes a mainstay, All stars in Hamilton.
But what about Dunedin? World class facility with a roof surely gets a good crowd with the scarcity of NRL there.
That's a big gap that should certainly be able to cover an NRL match.

Sharks should take a home game there vs Warriors. Less games played at shark park the better and an opportunity to bring more games to other markets.

 

[Matua]

Sharks should take a home game there vs Warriors. Less games played at shark park the better and an opportunity to bring more games to other markets.

Nope, that's one less game I get to watch in Sydney.

 

[Matua]

You talking about teams/regions like northland, southland and Tasman etc?

I actually took a little interest in the NPC cup last season(2025) watching the highlights on YouTube and thought it was more enjoyable than super rugby.

i think this is where the future on domestic RU in New Zealand should be instead of super rugby imo.

The anti rugby no matter what posters on this forum will not believe this because they can't conceptualise people liking anything other then league, but Super Rugby was actually really good in 2025, the actual games themselves - the marketing etc is still crap.

In saying that, I'm the same as @Matiunz in that I prefer NPC due to our home team the Magpies than franchise rugby.

The warriors were huge in that first season and maybe even bigger than today??

We've probably had 30 pages of this thread arguing about this and the early 2000s Warriors compared with today. You might have to read back through it for all that fun.

was a changing of the guard moment for me as you had world class players like Hanley, offiah, Davies and Schofield retired from international RL for GB and for New Zealand it not only saw the emergence of future kiwi legends like wiki and jones mixed in with established world class players like Pongia, Kearney, ridge and Barnett it also saw the entire starting kiwi 17 picked from the Aussie comps and not the English comp and New Zealand domestic comp.

Yeah, back in those days I knew all the GB players and those guys were superstars of league in both hemispheres. Now, I struggle to know half the England team when I see their lineups.

Although, we always made room (needed) for the Paul's and then Thomas Leuluai in the 2000s.

 

[Wb1234]

The anti rugby no matter what posters on this forum will not believe this because they can't conceptualise people liking anything other then league, but Super Rugby was actually really good in 2025, the actual games themselves - the marketing etc is still crap.

In saying that, I'm the same as @Matiunz in that I prefer NPC due to our home team the Magpies than franchise rugby.



We've probably had 30 pages of this thread arguing about this and the early 2000s Warriors compared with today. You might have to read back through it for all that fun.



Yeah, back in those days I knew all the GB players and those guys were superstars of league in both hemispheres. Now, I struggle to know half the England team when I see their lineups.

Although, we always made room (needed) for the Paul's and then Thomas Leuluai in the 2000s.

The only real way to save super rugby is bring back the saffers

They got a big crowd yesterday

Two best nations then add Mickey Mouse teams from Australia and Japan for padding

 

[Gobsmacked]

The only real way to save super rugby is bring back the saffers

They got a big crowd yesterday

Two best nations then add Mickey Mouse teams from Australia and Japan for padding

I think a lot of the hype around what SR used to be was more of a reflection on the state of the NRL.
The peak Union was league's biggest eb..
They can do whatever they want, you're not going to pull fans back from the NRL, maybe slow the flow but even that usually just depletes their cash flow.

Imagine trying to attract new fans to Union while NRL are adding Perth and PNG..
It's like opening night at the movies and you have black and white, while across the street full colour is opening.

Our mate that thinks you can like 2 things equally is only true for those that lack authenticity. He's just pompous, pretentious and pathetic.
He should just commit to Union or be honest with himself and admit it's actually shit.

 

[Matua]

The only real way to save super rugby is bring back the saffers

They got a big crowd yesterday

Two best nations then add Mickey Mouse teams from Australia and Japan for padding

The Saffas most likely aren't coming back, they spent 20 years trying to leave and then used a global pandemic to achieve their goal. Now they're in a comp they have a decent chance at winning often they're not going to give that up.

Also, despite the doom and gloom in this thread, actually in this thread it's more often joy and excitement , Super (in NZ at least) is not actually in that bad a place. The going out to the game crowds are as dire as they have been for years now (including when the Saffers where involved), but the TV numbers have been tracking upwards.