Solid Endorsement Of all Black Management From Fans - UMR

Solid Endorsement Of all Black Management From Fans

78% of New Zealand rugby fans believe that the All Blacks are as well prepared as they could be for the RWC, and most were confident in an All Black victory prior to the losses to the Springboks and Wallabies. According to new polls released today by UMR Research:

- 82% of fans are at least quietly confident that the All Blacks will win the Rugby World Cup. 28% are very confident that the All Blacks will win the RWC, while 54% are fairly confident.

- 62% think that the NZRU was right to keep Graham Henry as coach after the 2007 RWC, compared with only 10% who think that they made the wrong decision.

Most of the fieldwork for the polls was conducted prior to the All Blacks’ loss to the Springboks and all was conducted prior to the loss to the Wallabies. At that time, 48% thought that the biggest threat to an All Black victory would come from Australia, while 28% expected it to come from South Africa.

Expectations of the tournament itself have also improved over the last month.

- 43% of all New Zealanders now say that they are looking forward to the RWC, up 6% since July.

- 61% now believe it will be good for the economy (up 10%), and the number who think it will be disruptive has fallen 6% to 35%.

The data is from two UMR surveys:

- The ‘confidence’ and ‘biggest rival’ questions were from telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 750 New Zealanders aged 18 years and over conducted from August 18-22. - The other questions are from an online survey of a nationally representative sample of 1000 New Zealanders aged 18 years and over conducted from August 9-17.

RWC Preparations Expectations Aug (pdf)

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