Rugby’s ITM Cup Under Serious Threat From NRL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Rugby’s ITM Cup Dominates In South But Under Serious Threat From NRL In Auckland & A-League In Wellington

While more New Zealanders are interested in the ITM Cup than in the NRL or A-League, a new poll released by UMR Research shows big regional variations. The poll asked New Zealanders to choose whether they were most interested in the ITM Cup Rugby, the NRL Rugby League or in the A-League Soccer.

- Amongst New Zealanders as a whole, 41% choose the ITM Cup, while 22% choose the NRL and 16% choose the A-League.

- In Auckland, however, the NRL leads the ITM Cup by 33% to 26%, with the A-League on 17%.

- In Wellington, 31% prefer the A-League and the Wellington Phoenix, while 40% choose the ITM Cup and only 10% prefer the NRL.

- The ITM Cup is the choice of the majority of people in Lower North Island provincial areas (54%), in Canterbury (54%) and in other parts of the South Island (53%).

The poll also shows that 63% of New Zealanders prefer Super Rugby over the ITM Cup.

Rugby remains clearly New Zealand’s number one sport, however, and interest is up slightly since June. It is still clearly the most popular support in both Auckland and Wellington.

- 64% are interested in Rugby (up 2% since June), including 62% of Aucklanders and 66% of Wellingtonians.

- Soccer remains in 2nd place on 45%, down 8% since June and the World Cup.

- Rugby league is behind netball in 4th place, with league down 2% to 40% and netball up 2% to 44%.

The New Zealand data is from UMR Research’s latest online survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,000 New Zealanders aged 18 years and over .

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