Cricket hitting rugby for six?
Every now and again, something prompts otherwise sensible New Zealanders to make outlandish predictions about football’s advance at rugby’s expense: the All Whites’ involvement in the 1982 Fifa World Cup; football’s participation levels overtaking rugby’s; the launch of the Wellington Phoenix in 2007; the All Whites’ unbeaten run at the 2010 World Cup.
A decade on, the most notable aspect of the 2010 campaign – played three, drew three, failed to progress beyond pool play – was that it persuaded many Kiwis that the true measure of sporting success is achievement relative to expectations, as opposed to
