All Blacks set to play at Mount Smart, Dunedin in line to host Bledisloe test

AUCKLAND: The All Blacks are going to have to take a Rugby Championship clash to the home of rugby league and possibly play a warmup game offshore next year, due to a scheduling clash with the Fifa Women’s World Cup.

Mount Smart is now oddson favourite to be the venue for the match against the Springboks next year as Eden Park is almost certainly not going to host the All Blacks in 2023, which will be the first time in the professional era the Auckland ground has missed out on being allocated a test.

Mount Smart is being lined up because Eden Park, Dunedin, Wellington and Hamilton will be off limits to the All Blacks from July 20 to August 20, all four venues serving as

World Cup hosts.

Fifa imposes strict exclusivity around its venues and because next year is a World Cup year, the Rugby Championship, which will be truncated to just one round and the Bledisloe Cup, has to be squeezed into a tight window from early July to midAugust.

It is understood the All Blacks will play the first Bledisloe Cup clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and that NZR is hopeful it will be able to host the Wallabies a week later in Dunedin.

The All Blacks will play the Pumas in Argentina, but the problem with the Fifa scheduling impacts the final Rugby Championship test at home to the Springboks.

With no major venues available, the largest capacity stadium open for that game is Mount Smart, in Auckland.

The All Blacks have previously played at Mount Smart, as recently as last year when they took on Tonga. But Mount Smart is the home of the New Zealand Warriors and recognised as the spiritual home of rugby league.

The irony has not been missed that the All Blacks will next year

play at the spiritual home of rugby league, but not Eden Park, which is recognised as the spiritual home of rugby in this country.

The decision to play the home Bledisloe in Dunedin, rather than at Eden Park which is available on the proposed date, is clearly one that has upset the All Blacks management.

Head coach Ian Foster made reference, the day after the All Blacks had beaten the Wallabies 4014, to the fact he was disappointed that his side would not be playing at Eden Park in 2023.

The Herald believes NZR was not happy with Eden Park for scheduling an All Whites friendly against Australia the day after this year’s Bledisloe Cup clash, arguing that the close proximity of the two games at the same venue denied the rugby fixture the requisite exclusivity to fully promote itself.

The All Blacks are also looking at playing a fifth test before the World Cup as there is a fiveweek gap between their last game against the Springboks and opening World Cup clash against France in Paris on September 8.

In 2015, the All Blacks had a sixweek gap between their last

Rugby Championship game and first World Cup encounter against Argentina and struggled to find their rhythm against the Pumas as a result of the long layoff.

There is a highperformance need to play a test in that fiveweek gap and because of the issue with stadium availability, NZR is believed to be looking at offshore venues, most likely the

United Kingdom.

Playing offshore would not only get around the venue issue, it would probably be commercially lucrative as the probable venues would be Twickenham, Wembley or Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. —