Do you NH fans realise that England has more people playing rugby than the tri-nations combined?
There’s nothing surprising about those figures. I recall decades ago being really surpised at statistics that placed NZ way down the list, and if memory serves me correctly player numbers in England were actually a quite astonishing ten times as great. Possibly the relative emphasis of the sport in a country outweighs numbers. Rugby is the national sport of NZ and SA, and I suppose league is in Aussie so union has also become prominent. To the best of my knowledge Wales would be the only NH country that that would be true of. In New Zealand, I suspect player numbers are actually declining, and I am fairly certain more school children now play soccer. But the passion to win will always be with rugby. It’s a religion, part of the culture. Irrespective of numbers, wanting to be an All Black is a phenomenal motivation. Probably in the same way that masses of English kids dream of emulating their soccer stars. Interestingly, the most truly passionate English team I’ve seen in my lifetime wa
