COME Oct 28, all eyes will be on New Zealand’s All Blacks to see if the three-time Rugby World Champions (1987, 2011, 2015) will face off host country France’s Les Bleus in the final.

France has never won the world championship. But the stakes are high – the All Blacks, whose history extends back more than a century, are one of the most successful and legendary teams in the sport, with a winning Test record of more than 77 per cent.

Fans look forward as much to the All Blacks’ style of play – described as “Total Rugby”, a style characterised by adaptability, dynamism, mental toughness, precision, skill, teamwork, and versatility – as much as their iconic haka, the fearsome Māori war dance performed before every Test match. 

It’s no wonder that Tudor has chosen to align itself with the All Blacks. 

Their partnership is still in its infancy – the union began in 2017 – compared to the centuries-old sport. In fact, 2023 marks the 200th anniversary since the game was invented by one William Webb Ellis, a student in the town of Rugby, England. Sporting lore has it that during a game of football, Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it, defying the rule that the ball should only be kicked forward. 

Rugby has grown in popularity in the 200 years since, and now claims the title of the world’s third-largest sporting event after the Olympics and the Fifa World Cup. An EY report noted that more than 857 million viewers tuned in to the Rugby World Cup (RWC) final held in Japan in 2019. It was a 26 per cent increase over figures from 2015, the report added. 

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It remains to be seen if viewership numbers for the 10th edition of the RWC will surpass that. Regardless, as Official Timekeeper of the competition, which is being played out by 20 teams at nine venues in nine cities, Tudor’s branding would still be seen by about a tenth of humanity.

That’s not a figure to scoff at. And if the All Blacks manage to reclaim the Webb Ellis Cup again, that would be a double win for Tudor.