30 October 2009 - 08H34  

Asia should keep Bledisloe Cup match: Aussie chief
NZealand All Blacks captain Richard McCaw kicks the ball during training session at the national stadium in Tokyo, on October 30, on the eve of their Bledisloe Cup Test against Australia. The Tokyo fixture is the second trans-Tasman Test played abroad after Hong Kong hosted a game last year, as part of a drive by Australia and New Zealand to develop the game in the growing Asian market.
NZealand All Blacks captain Richard McCaw kicks the ball during training session at the national stadium in Tokyo, on October 30, on the eve of their Bledisloe Cup Test against Australia. The Tokyo fixture is the second trans-Tasman Test played abroad after Hong Kong hosted a game last year, as part of a drive by Australia and New Zealand to develop the game in the growing Asian market.
Australia Wallabies Ryan Cross (centre) passes the ball during training session at the national stadium in Tokyo, on October 30, on the eve of their Bledisloe Cup Test against NZealand. The Tokyo fixture is the second trans-Tasman Test played abroad after Hong Kong hosted a game last year, as part of a drive by Australia and New Zealand to develop the game in the growing Asian market.
Australia Wallabies Ryan Cross (centre) passes the ball during training session at the national stadium in Tokyo, on October 30, on the eve of their Bledisloe Cup Test against NZealand. The Tokyo fixture is the second trans-Tasman Test played abroad after Hong Kong hosted a game last year, as part of a drive by Australia and New Zealand to develop the game in the growing Asian market.

AFP - Australia's rugby boss said Friday that Asia should continue to host a neutral-ground Bledisloe Cup clash with New Zealand, despite a bid by the US city of Denver.

"Our strategic preference is Asia," Australian Rugby Union chief executive officer John O'Neill said in Tokyo on the eve of the year's fourth and final Bledisloe Cup match. The All Blacks lead the series 3-0.

The Tokyo fixture is the second trans-Tasman Test played abroad after Hong Kong hosted a game last year, as part of a drive by Australia and New Zealand to develop the game in the growing Asian market.

O'Neill said Asia's similar time zones and the region's potential to "fairly seamlessly grow rugby" make it a choice that is "more sensible than all the challenges that would go with North America."

"Hong Kong was a great success and we have no doubt the match here will be a wonderful occasion," he said. "We're very serious about growing rugby's footprint in this part of the world."

O'Neill added that "both Hong Kong and Tokyo have expressed a keen interest" in hosting next year's match.

Australia is holding talks with New Zealand and South Africa on the venue of an additional Bledisloe Cup match in 2010, and the location will likely be announced early next year, he said.

For Australia and New Zealand it is also a "strategic move" to involve Japanese teams in the southern hemisphere Super League, he said.

O'Neill recalled that Japan -- Asian champions but minnows in world rugby -- had won the right to host the 2019 rugby World Cup with "enormous support" from Australia and New Zealand.

Japan's national team head coach John Kirwan, an All Blacks legend, has insisted that the Asian country does not need to join an expanded Super League as giant corporations are sponsoring its well-structured home league.

O'Neill said he had talked with Kirwan on the issue and that "we agreed to disagree."

To make the 2019 World Cup a success, host Japan should become capable of reaching its quarter-finals, O'Neill said. Japan is currently ranked 14th in the world.

He proposed that two Japanese teams play in the Australia-New Zealand conference, involving the country's best 30 to 40 players.

It could be the "best way to accelerate the performance of the Japanese national team to make it a real contender in 10 years' time," he said.

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