After a season of second-rate internationals for All Blacks fans comes news rugby bosses have given the green light to a test match against the Wallabies in Hong Kong.
All Blacks supporters have been starved of quality rugby this winter with games against France 'C', Canada and South Africa 'C' .
Now the rugby public has been dealt another blow with few supporters likely to be able to afford tickets and accommodation packages for the November '08 test in Hong Kong.
In a worrying trend, the game will be reduced to gimmick proportions as the Bledisloe Cup will not be up for grabs, even though it will be an official test.
The Hong Kong game will be played either on the way to, or on the way back from, an extraordinary European jaunt with Sunday News able to reveal:
# NZRU bosses are working feverishly to add games against England and Wales to the already confirmed one-off test against Wales and two tests against Scotland, meaning a second Grand Slam tour in three years.
# Three mid-week games against European opposition will take place.
# A squad of epic proportions - between 40 and 50 players - will be selected for the nine game, five-week tour.
NZRU deputy CEO Steve Tew refused to be interviewed for this story, instead issuing a statement through spokesman Joe Locke.
"We're looking at a number of options for 2008 but as yet nothing has been confirmed," he said.
But an NZRU insider confirmed planning was in an "advanced" stage.
The Australian union's communications boss Brian West confirmed the two unions had been in talks for two months.
"It's on the cards," he said of the Hong Hong test.
Sunday News has been told the ARU and NZRU originally planned to play the game on mainland China but chose Hong Kong because of the popularity of the annual Hong Kong Sevens tournament.
It's clear that after the NZRU's nose was bloodied on Thursday by their broadcasters News Limited - angered by Graham Henry's decision to rest 22 All Blacks from the Super 14 - the union is now determined on securing its future beyond 2011 and the end of its current broadcasting deal.
The extended tour - with the first All Blacks mid-week games since they toured Ireland and Scotland in 2001- is expected to bring between $10m and $15m profit.
The mid-week fixtures are expected to be against Ireland's 2006 European champions Munster, French champions Stade Francais and either Wasps or Leicester from England's premiership.
The venues Croke Park in Dublin, Paris' Stade Francais and Twickenham in London have a combined capacity of 244,300 and the gate takings will add significantly to projected profit margins.
The planned tour flies in the face of the propaganda coming out of HQ in recent years about player burnout.
The fear is the All Blacks - already out of this year's Air New Zealand Cup because of their World Cup commitments - will now be asked to sit out a large chunk of next year's provincial championship.
And if the cynical money-making exercise comes off, it will ensure All Blacks jerseys have never been easier to earn.
Next year's side will already be without more than a dozen current All Blacks and a Tour de Farce touring party of between 40-50 players will stretch New Zealand's depleted player pool to the maximum.
"If they end up taking that many players it would be an absolute joke," former All Black Josh Kronfeld told Sunday News.
Kronfeld, who played 54 tests between 1995 and 2000, said it was already easier to become an All Black than at any other time.
"At the most, 35 players should be enough to cover the tests and mid-week games," he said.
"You don't need any more than that.
"They might as well open a packet of Weetbix to get their All Blacks jersey now -that's how easy it's becoming.
"Hell, I might as well make a comeback!"
Player of the Century Colin Meads - now an NZRU life member - supports the tour, if not the projected number of tourists.
"I'm all for it," he said last night. "After the World Cup this year there will be a mass clearout of players and the tour will allow them to experiment a bit.
"Those mid-week games will be worth their weight in gold for the coach."
