FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

5 April 2011

Confidence in All Blacks Winning Cup Falls

All Blacks Most Serious Opponnents: South Africa and Australia

Kiwi rugby fans are less confident that the All Blacks will win the World Cup this year than they were in 2003 when it was hosted by Australia.

South Africa and Australia are seen as the All Blacks’ most serious opponents this year.

These results are from UMR Research’s latest nationwide poll and from answers to the same questions asked in 2003 of those who were interested in rugby.

Interest in Rugby is slightly higher this year with 69% saying they are interested compared with 66% back in 2003. This figure fluctuates depending on the stage of the season and can be expected to increase as the competition gets closer.

Of those interested in rugby, 77% are confident that the All Blacks will win the cup which is significantly lower than the 85% who were confident they would win the 2003 cup. Confidence is lower among men (73%) than women (80%) and declines with age – 69% of those over 60 are confident.

Of all the teams in the competition, 39% rate South Africa as the All Blacks’ most serious opponents followed by Australia (32%) and then a distant England (10%) and France (7%). Back in 2003, the most serious opponent was far and away England (63%) followed by Australia (24%), France (5%) and South Africa (3%). England went on to win that World Cup beating Australia in the final.

Opinion is more or less divided about whether the All Blacks should win as many games as possible in the lead-up to the competition. Given the choice, 51% said they should win as many games as possible and 44% said the All Blacks should build towards the cup even if it meant losing some games.

UMR’s fortnightly telephone poll randomly samples n=750 New Zealanders aged 18 years and over. It has a margin of error of +3.6%. The survey on the Rugby World Cup was conducted between 24-27 March 2011. The confidence question was not asked in 2007 at the time of the last World Cup

ENDS

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