David Ferguson at the World Cup: Farewell to New Zealand, a great nation in fear of its rugby future

THE final group of Scotland players and management departed Auckland last night and left their World Cup dreams behind them.

It has been a tough experience for a squad that appeared to be as strong and talented as any that had gone before them, and it will be rammed home this weekend when a so-far sluggish England take on a faltering France in the quarter-finals, and Ireland and Wales go head-to-head, while Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa come together in an appetising business-end of the tournament. There is nothing worse than knowing you could have been there, and there was no doubt that this Scotland team had the ability to join them.

The Scots have been very popular, from handing over a £50,000 cheque from the Hearts and Balls dinner in Glasgow, to their colourful, friendly and passionate support on the streets, and in shops and pubs, and the squad finished off with a warm gesture yesterday when stand-off Ruaridh Jackson led a group into the Starship Children’s Hospital in Auckland, to hand over a 50” flatscreen TV, which had the kids in raptures. The TV, which the squad had bought and transported with them around the country, will be sited in a medical ward for up to 30 children aged between newborn and 16, many of whom can have long hospital stays.

As we board flights at least a week earlier than we hoped, it is worth reflecting on what has been, so far, a wonderful Rugby World Cup hosted by New Zealand. There was great anticipation of what a tournament back in the ‘stadium of four million people’ would actually feel like, and it has lived up to expectations. The Haka may have perhaps become so commonplace that it has lost a bit of its mystique, but the presence of Maori culture alongside proud New Zealanders whose roots are in all corners of the world – most notably Scotland it appears – has been wonderful to behold.

The New Zealand tourism bodies across the country have gone out of their way to provide supporters with trips, from wine and beer-tasting and vineyard lunches, to flights to little islands, rafting, bridge-climbing, quad-biking and hair-raising ‘sky jumps’, to less energetic boat sails, museum and art exhibitions and guided tours of cities. And that is where one feels this incredible country will benefit most from hosting the Rugby World Cup.

It has been hugely illuminating also, however, to discover that this country has serious problems in rugby too, and some not 12,000 miles from those in Scotland. There is a worrying disconnection between the professional and international game and grassroots club rugby, one which the NZRFU and provincial unions are toiling to overcome.

There is huge concern about where the money is coming from to continue to develop the sport, while having to plough more and more into player salaries, and it is only a matter of time before some of the 14 traditional unions that play in the popular ITM Cup disappear. Several All Blacks will depart for Europe after this World Cup to improve their pensions, but more are staying this time than has been the case in the past, and making that happen has come at a cost to New Zealand rugby.

The NZRFU will lose millions in income this year through hosting the Rugby World Cup, as the honour comes with a guarantee to give the IRB an income that will, in effect, ensure that the RWC/NZRFU takes a financial hit, and they have lost the income generated by summer tours to New Zealand, the full Tri Nations programme, which was cut this year, and autumn tours to Europe in 2011.

There has to be work done over the next couple of years within the IRB to share the millions grossed by the World Cup more equitably. It has been great to watch Georgia, Tonga, Samoa, Canada, Russia and other tier-two nations step up again in this tournament, bringing not only great colour and passion but quality rugby skills to the event, and the investment from the IRB in those countries must continue.

However, nations such as Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Italy, who hover below the French and English in terms of revenues, must be remembered as well, and New Zealand are also in that category.

They may be the leading rugby nation in the world, but having spent a month embedded in the rugby culture, we have seen the cracks that are causing concern. In Lower Hutt, near Wellington, for example, local school headteacher Ian Hastie – whose late father propped for Kelso and Scotland – told me how a significant number of parents of white children had stopped them from playing rugby and were moving them to football instead because they fear for them in games with children of Pacific island descent.

One enthusiastic born-and-bred 13-year-old Kiwi I was told of last week, with parents of a Tongan background, already weighs 14 stones and has much growth still left in him. He is a great kid by all accounts who loves rugby, and his family are great supporters of the team and the school. But other parents don’t want their children on the pitch with him.

They have been running leagues differentiated by weight for years here – for under 50kgs, under 60kgs, under 80kgs etc – in an attempt to tackle the issue and, in parts of New Zealand, they have apparently put a ban on Pacific islanders playing stand-off due to the dearth of white European-descended children coming through in the position and the belief, right or wrong, that islanders are not as well suited to the position.

One only has to look at the problems the All Blacks have had this week with Dan Carter ruled out of the tournament through injury and Colin Slade, the next choice, not considered yet good enough at Test level.

Paul Assur, a former West of Scotland winger and SRU development officer, has been in New Zealand for eight years. He works in rugby for Upper Hutt Rugby Club and he told me: “There is a belief that everyone in New Zealand plays rugby and knows rugby but, when you get in the schools, soccer is growing, especially amongst the Pakeha [people of white European descent] in places like Wellington, where rugby is very much dominated by the islanders. I go into schools and see many children who are more enthusiastic for soccer and don’t even understand rugby. It’s a bit like trying to spread the rugby gospel in Glasgow at times!”

This is a country with one million fewer people than Scotland, but many similarities. It has a terrific rich, diverse and friendly culture, perhaps because of its size and remoteness. It has serious challenges ahead in its rugby, which winning a World Cup could go a long way to helping, but New Zealand has opened the eyes of the world to its delights and I confidently predict that many, many people will return here. Put it on your ‘bucket list’ now.

Thank you for your hospitality, New Zealand.