The Australian Rugby Union is "considering staging a Bledisloe Cup blockbuster at Twickenham under plans to take the prize asset on the road during ANZ Stadium’s rebuild," according to Iain Payten of the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH. Under a deal with the New South Wales government, the ARU had committed to playing a Bledisloe Cup game in Sydney every year until '21 but with the venue to get a A$700M ($546M) facelift from '18 onward, those "Wallabies-All Blacks’ clashes are up for grabs." The ARU has written to the premiers of Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia inviting them to "formally express interest but the prospect of taking a Bledisloe Cup game to London, or possibly even New York, is also being seriously considered." ARU GM Rob Clarke said, "We are a global game so global opportunities will present themselves. Argentina are playing their home game against us at Twickenham in the Rugby Championship this year, so there is a precedent there." With broadcast rights in Europe "increasing dramatically each cycle for SANZAR," a London Bledisloe in '20 could make a "big promotional impact" as negotiations for the next deal in '21 are underway. But in reality, securing a "big match fee will be the ARU’s biggest consideration -- domestically or internationally." Wallabies’ Test matches are "the biggest source of ARU revenue and the Bledisloes are the biggest Wallabies’ Test matches" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 4/20).
