2018 Black Ferns
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Wish this had of been televised in the UK.
I have seem the Black Ferns play live quite a few times and contrary to some of the above I really enjoy watching them.
At the top level women's rugbh is a great watch. Drops off pretty quick after the top handful of nations but depth will come in time.
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Any word on crowd size at the end of the match?
Can we point and laugh at Aussie or do we sweep that under the carpet?
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Here's some info that some of you have been asking for:
Support for the Black Ferns continues to surge, inside and outside stadiums. NZ Rugby CEO Steve Tew revealed the national women's rugby team, who retained the Laurie O'Reilly Memorial Trophy after a 2-0 series cleansweep against their Australian counterparts, are more popular than ever - something his organisation will surely use to use to its advantage during the bid to host the women's World Cup in 2021.At the end of their game at Eden Park, a curtain raiser to the All Blacks-Wallabies test, there were over 28,000 fans in attendance. Tew compared this to the figure of 12,500 who had walked through the turnstiles at the same ground in 2016 for the same fixture. More TV viewers are also tuning into games, he said: "Last week we had the highest viewership for a women's test match, almost 250,000 out of Sydney. Both games have been very well supported." The TV numbers for the test in Auckland have yet to be released.The Black Ferns will play three more games this year. They will form a part of a "tripleheader" bill when they play in Chicago on November 4 against a US team. The NZ Maori will play their US male counterparts on the same day, as will Italy and Ireland. The Black Ferns will then fly to France, for tests in Toulon and Grenoble. Arranging more than five games in a calendar year for the women was a challenge, added Tew. "The problem we have for the Black Ferns, is the problem we have with all of our teams, and it comes back to the negotiations we are having with Sanzaar. "We are just a long way from anybody who is playing the game. With distance comes cost, and other resource issues." Tew said that because there was already a Six Nations women's tournament in place, the teams from the Home Nations, Italy and France have already settled on a schedule. "We are comfortable that a five-test programme, this year, is good for the Black Ferns. One game at home, and one other game that was primed for TV time has been good. And we will keep working hard to get them a programme for next year." -
No way! They got an audience on Sky Sports 1 when they play at 7:30 on a Sat night when the AB's are playing at 9:30.. who would have thought!!! Lets see how they go this week at 5:30pm.
Is it the popularity of the Black Ferns that resulted in bigger audiences or the popularity of the Ab's and playing as a curtain raiser. Luckily we will be able to see .... we can monitor how well they do when they play at other times without being a curtain raiser. I would love to see the numbers for a Mitre 10 cup on Sky Sports 1 at 7:30 before 9:30 AB''s test on the same channel.Wonder why they didnt play the womens test on Friday might at 7:30... I mean they are such a big draw... they could have cleaned up....unless.... they are just piggy backing.
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The crowd size at Eden Park for the Black Ferns v Wallaroos test on Saturday, 22 October 2016 was 12,500. In 2018 that increased to 28,000 (more than double).
In 2016, the test started at 5.05pm; in 2018 it started at 5.00pm.
In 2016, the women's test was followed by an All Blacks v Wallabies (Bledisloe III) test. In 2018, it was also followed by an All Blacks v Wallabies test (Bledisloe II).
In 2016, there was no Mitre 10 Cup game played at the same time. In 2018, the women's test was played at almost same time as Waikato v North Harbour (broadcast on another Sky Sport Channel).
By the way, the Wallaroos v Black Ferns test in Sydney was also played at the same time as a Mitre 10 Cup game (Bay of Plenty v Taranaki), which was also broadcast on another Sky Sports Channel.So the fact that there was a men's test after the women's test is no factor in the increase in numbers, as there was also a men's test afterwards in 2016. Despite the fact that there was a Mitre 10 Cup game, which probably drew a lot of viewership away from the women's test, there was still a record viewership for a women's test match of almost 250,000 viewers for the Sydney test.
I really don't understand why some people have such hostile reactions to other people liking to watch women's test matches, now and then, and to that number of people increasing. Does it harm anyone? And so what if more people watch Mitre 10 Cup games (or not)? That doesn't alter the fact at all that there was a record tv viewership for a women's test, does it? Really, what's the problem?
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@stargazer said in 2018 Black Ferns:
Really, what's the problem?
Steve Hansen begging the PM for funding so we don't lose our best players could be one?
Dunno, can't escape an instinct that it's rather a charade or somehow contrived, but I realise how callous that remark is. I keep getting stuck on the gross inferiority of the product. Yet I'm told it's worthy.
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@siam said in 2018 Black Ferns:
@stargazer said in 2018 Black Ferns:
Really, what's the problem?
Steve Hansen begging the PM for funding so we don't lose our best players could be one?
What does that have to do with the Black Ferns?
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@kiwimurph nothing if the black ferns "department" is financially self sufficient.
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@siam was hardly begging...he has a valid point though when you consider the funding for other high performance sports, and then the Americas Cup.
I think it's the Irish model that I like, where the player gets a big chunk of thier tax back if they retire in NZ.
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@siam said in 2018 Black Ferns:
@kiwimurph nothing if the black ferns "department" is financially self sufficient.
I'd think having them play a double header alongside AB test match would be a good way of keeping costs down?
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@bovidae said in 2018 Black Ferns:
NZR gets tax payer money for their Olympic sevens programmes.
Didn't Tew outline a number of areas where NZR actually benefit from govt funding in one of the articles (I can't remember which).
Odd that Hansen and Tew have picked now to bring this up and not when Key was PM and down to fellate any AB he could get his lips on.
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@nepia the snippet I heard from Hansen it seemed like one of those half joking cheeky comments that you dont expect a positive response for, delivered with his dry mumbly way.
St Cindy said on TV that like most of these organisations they have official channels to apply for funding through and hadnt received one from NZR.
Plus they do fund grassroots as well, not just Olympics.
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@taniwharugby said in 2018 Black Ferns:
@nepia the snippet I heard from Hansen it seemed like one of those half joking cheeky comments that you dont expect a positive response for, delivered with his dry mumbly way.
St Cindy said on TV that like most of these organisations they have official channels to apply for funding through and hadnt received one from NZR.
Plus they do fund grassroots as well, not just Olympics.
Yeah, I just assume when these come up that a journo asks a question, he answers, and then it gets printed as a statement.
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@chris-b M10/Super/ABs would be under thier own private scheme wouldnt they, if not, NZR's ACC levies would be massive anyway due to the sheer number of 'workplace injuries'
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@taniwharugby Dunno. Isn't it compulsory?
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