This year's fourth Bledisloe Cup will not be moved from Hong Kong despite sluggish ticket sales.
Bledisloe Cup game will go ahead as planned in Hong Kong
This year's fourth Bledisloe Cup will not be moved from Hong Kong despite sluggish ticket sales.
There has been increasing speculation that the fixture at the Hong Kong Stadium on October 30 could be shifted to another venue - possibly England - because of a low uptake in tickets.
Although Australian Rugby Union boss John O'Neill has admitted that this is likely to be the last time four Bledisloe Cup games are played in the season, this year's final fixture will go ahead as planned.
And O'Neill claims it is the responsibility of himself, his NZRU counterpart Steve Tew and the Hong Kong Rugby Union to make the fixture work.
"The game's certainly not being cancelled. We've got to make it work," O'Neill said.
"It's fair to say that ticket sales have not been as we had hoped and there's a number of reasons for that which NZRU and ourselves are working on right at the moment.
Challenges
"Steve Tew and his team are in town for the next couple of days so we'll be having some deep and meaningful conversations with the Hong Kong Rugby Union in the next 48 hours.
"There are no plans to cancel the match. We've got to find ways and means of getting ticket sales back to what they should be.
"Regardless of the challenges we have with Hong Kong this year, the days of a fourth Bledisloe are over.
"We've got a World Cup next year so we've got an abbreviated Tri-Nations, it's only home and away against the Blacks and the Boks.
"And then in 2012 we go into Four Nations with Argentina and we'll most probably still play three Bledisloes but it'll be in a series and we won't be playing four.
"Ideally, the programming (of the three annual Bledisloe Tests) will be on consecutive weeks. I hate to sound like a rugby league person but Bledisloe I, Bledisloe II and Bledisloe III would be on consecutive weeks."
