Face the facts: we just don't care about Test matches

Andrew Moore | 08/05/08 | 0

Newspapers, radio, television stations, we’re all trying desperately hard to talk up tomorrow night’s Centenary Test between Australia and New Zealand at the grand ole SCG.

As I said a couple of days ago, the apathetic Sydney public simply won’t get off its backside to head out to the ground, for whatever reason.

How about a couple of hard truths. These may upset a lot of rugby league people, but I’m confident I have this 100 percent correct.

The fact is, Test matches rate a poor third when it comes to the majority of rugby league supporters, well behind State of Origin and even NRL games.

Most league fans would rather watch their club team play on any given weekend then a Test between Australia and anyone else. State of Origin is a million miles ahead of Tests these days in terms of popularity. It’s not even close.

This is one of the things that has changed dramatically in rugby league over the past 28 years since State of Origin was introduced.

We can sit here and talk all we like about how important this game is – the historical significance, the great Australian back line – until we’re blue in the face, but it just doesn’t matter enough to people.

Test match rugby league just doesn’t generate the huge bursts of national pride that a Bledisloe Cup rugby Test does, or an Australia versus England Ashes cricket Test. It just doesn’t.

So I think the realisation is that if rugby league officials want sell-out or at least near sell-out crowds for Test matches in the future they should be playing them in Brisbane, Townsville or Gold Coast. It just aint going to happen in Sydney, because it just doesn’t matter as much as the NRL or State of Origin.

Most league fans would rather watch their club team play on any given weekend then a Test between Australia and anyone else. Andrew Moore