England looking at All Blacks clash in November

Agreed random. I'm an England rugby fan, but the All Blacks are world number 1. And they would be playing away. 50% cut minimum. As for the fairweather fans comment, I don't think so my friend. Any rugby or cricket test played in the southern New Guinea islands is packed with those fairweather fans.

The British Lions will touring New Zealand this year - that's probably enough good rugby for 2017. Stick with the scheduled match in 2018. That's one year out from the World Cup in Japan, and will be a good measure of how these two excellent teams.

There is no upside for NZ in this fixture. The season is busy and they already face a bigger challenge than just England in the Lions. If England pay fr the privilege then NZ should just run the B team out and save any full game for the future.

Have to say as much as I like watching the AB and nz rugby in general, I don't like how Tew and his nzru boys are running the show. It's all about $, appearance fees, greed and more $ these days. The day minnows like Hong Kong, the US etc are willing to cough up $5M to see their boys get smashed by the AB the darkness will be playing all their test footy in those cashed up nations. No one's bigger than the game, not even the AB.

The current agreement, valid for both hemispheres, is that hosts keep gate revenue for all tests which are within the test windows (nov and june). For an out-of-window test like this one, it's up to both federations to find an agreement and until now AB usually get £1.5 million which is 2x less than what they would like for this one. This would imo set a rather dangerous precedent.

If I were running the RFU, I would not offer the big bucks Tew is seeking and wait for next year, cause once thing Tew and the nzru folks don't get is that all euro sides can fill their 60-80k stadium against other teams than the AB (6N, Nov tours etc). Something that's no longer the case south of the equator.

TTD

As for the fairweather fans comment, I don't think so my friend

Mate just going off FB comments: all my Pommy friends were strangely very quite about rugby until Eddie took the reins. I'd call that fair weather. Looking forward to the match whenever and wherever it takes place but that bloody "Swing low" dirge does my head in. Cheers

Goldie

If I were running the RFU, I would not offer the big bucks Tew is seeking and wait for next year,

Eddie insists that just playing the ABs once b4 the 2019 RWC is not desirable. It's no skin off RNZ's nose if they don't play. Remember it's the Poms that want this game in the first place so yes Tew should rightly squeeze them until they squeal. Oink! Cheers

Poms want to play? Pay. Either that or they have to drag their bunch or slave song singing fair weather fans down to Auckland. Not that hard. New Zealand needs to be very willing to walk away this year if the price isn't north of 3 million US$.

Yes, because FB is the font of all knowledge. Dunno who your pommy mates are, mate, but they've probably got other entertainments to keep them going. We have them. You've got your rugby and ammusingly petty little digs, which keeps you going I guess. It's a small world, mate.