On the field and off, rugby is fighting to keep the game alive

Not since the upheavals of the 80s has New Zealand rugby faced such turmoil.

The game of rugby is facing the same sort of crisis that nearly consumed it in the 1980s, according to Sky sport commentator Tony Johnson.

There may be no Springbok protests, the new broom of professionalism has done its thing, and women are out of the tuck shop... but the list of issues the sport faces is vast.

They include New Zealand Rugby chair Dame Patsy Reddy threatening to resign if board reform doesn't go her way, competition with other sport, and dwindling crowds, though Johnson says our collective memory might be skewed and "it's still a very popular game".

"Anecdotally people will say 'I'm not interested in rugby anymore'... or 'look at the crowd for that game, half empty' etc etc. We tend to be a little bit selective in our memories. People will point back to the mid-80s and go 'oh they used to have 30,000, 40,000 ... well yes they did. They had 30,000 or 40,000 if Canterbury were playing Auckland for the Ranfurly Shield because that was the biggest thing in the game back then. But I went to plenty of games in the 70s and 80s where you count the crowd in hundreds, rather than thousands.

"It wasn't always this Utopia of packed-out crowds for every single game.

"Yes, at the moment it's not as good as it's been. Super rugby in its hey-day yes, got massive crowds all the time and that has fallen away.

"But this year the attendances have been solid rather than spectacular, and the viewing figures are still very good. The interest is still there. I think there is a perception though that interest is waning and that's something that certainly needs to be addressed because that negativity does tend to gnaw away at the popularity of a sport."

The Detail also speaks to long time rugby writer Phil Gifford.

"It's a sport that is under siege, it's as simple as that," he says.

"Crowds are down, television audiences are down, the NPC, the provincial competition draws tiny crowds... club rugby is struggling to stay alive especially in small towns. The game itself, I think, needs to have a good hard look and say to itself 'how can we make this game more attractive a) to watch and b) to play'."

Both experts list the same issues that are tripping rugby up. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details