Hong Kong Bledisloe Cup must go ahead

Australian Rugby Union boss John O'Neill is adamant that next month's Bledisloe Cup test match will go ahead even though ticket sales have been disappointing.

The Australian Rugby Union and the New Zealand Rugby Union have for the last two years staged an extra Bledisloe cup match in order to raise cash.

The First extra Bledisloe Cup clash was held in Hong Kong in 2008 and the second was held in Tokyo last year with both matches being played directly before the team's end of year tours.

Poor ticket sales for this year's match on October the 30th has led to speculation the clash could either be cancelled or moved to another venue, with England mooted as a possible destination.

But O'Neill insists both the ARU and New Zealand Rugby Union remain committed to making the Hong Kong Test a success, saying: "The game's certainly not being cancelled.

"We've got to make it work."he told the Telegraph.

"It's fair to say that ticket sales have not been as we had hoped and there's a number of reasons for that which NZRU and ourselves are working on right at the moment."

"(NZRU chief executive) Steve Tew and his team are in town for the next couple of days so we'll be having some deep and meaningful conversations with the Hong Kong Rugby Union in the next 48 hours.

"There are no plans to cancel the match. We've got to find ways and means of getting ticket sales back to what they should be."

A typically media savvy O'Neill did not reveal how many of the 40,000 tickets have been sold but it is believed that fewer than 10,000 tickets have been bought.

The first Hong Kong Bledisloe Test in 2008 was a sell-out.