September 9, 2010 10:00am by David Farrar

An open letter to the NZRFU and CRU

A reader has asked me to blog this open letter to the NZ Rugby Football Union and Canterbury Rugby Union:

Gentlemen.

As we are all aware the people of Canterbury have suffered a terrible disaster, many are operating on adrenalin alone, many face weeks if not months of uncertainty and disruption.

Both the NZRU and the CRU are in an almost unique situation where you can offer the people of Canterbury a brief respite from their woes, with that in mind I have a suggestion.

On the 25th of September you have an afternoon game scheduled between Canterbury and Wellington, why not make attendance at this game free of charge for anybody who wants to come along.

Why not offer the people of Canterbury the chance to forget their problems for a couple of hours, perhaps you could take around donation buckets for those who wish to contribute to the mayoral fund, no pressure should be put on anybody to contribute and many of those who turn up will have lost everything, however there will be others who can and would donate.

Use could be made of returning or retired All Blacks, those who are not playing (from both teams) should be encouraged to walk among the crowd and spend some time chatting with the people.

I would also like you to speak with the Breweries and the soft drink companies, why not offer them the chance to do something great, why not offer them the chance to give everybody who turns up a free beer or soft drink.

Ideally we would have the All Black captain there and he would present Mayor Bob Parker with a cheque from the team, this would be an amazing gesture and one that would gain back many of the fans the All Blacks have lost over the years.

So there it is Gentlemen, how about you take up the challenge, why not show us that Rugby is not just about money these days, why not show all of us that the game of Rugby is still the game of the people.