ABSTRACT
During the professional era, a belief has persisted that the modern game, with its emphasis on urban-based franchises in transnational competitions, has been particularly disadvantageous for rural rugby, leading to the closure of clubs, the deterioration of competitive structures and the alienation of core support. In recent decades, the values of the rural heartland have been invoked most strongly when the All Blacks, always the embodiment of New Zealand rugby as a whole, are perceived to be in crisis. Popular interpretations of the history and international success of New Zealand rugby have been permeated by rural nostalgia – the belief that the strength and values of the game reside in country clubs and the smaller provincial rugby unions and that the most successful All Black teams were dominated by farmers. When farmers like the Gordon Slaters slogged their way through a couple of hundred cows before driving an hour or more to training – or even to a major match.
