So, I’m fascinated by this article in the New Zealand Herald, which argues the All Blacks should be forced to give up business class and travel premium economy instead.

The reasoning is the cost of international travel has become so expensive that moving our teams in black around the planet is now costing nearly $87 million a year.

Dropping them back a class on the plane would bring that cost down to $80 million a year and nearly wipe out the $7 million loss that New Zealand Rugby just reported for the financial year, which is great maths.

But the idea is ridiculous, isn’t it?

I mean, you can’t ask a two-metre-tall man like Fabian Holland to move down from business class.

But even the shorter guys - you can’t ask them to travel to South Africa in a few weeks, which is literally on the other side of the world.

It’s close to a full day’s travel, even on the most direct route through Perth, and then expect them to get over their jet lag and start playing top-level rugby against the best team in the world. You’re asking them to do all of that after they’ve been sitting upright on a plane for the entire flight.

That’s impossible.

We sometimes disparage rugby as not being a “real job” when we say things like, “Oh, it’s not that hard to throw a ball around a paddock,” which may be true - but it’s still a job, isn’t it?

And when you’re asking someone to fly that distance for work - not just once but multiple times in a season - it should be in business class.

Now, there is an argument about how many people go on these trips and I’m happy to have that conversation.

There are apparently more than 40 players and nearly 30 staff heading to South Africa in a few weeks’ time, which seems excessive for a game that only requires 15 men on the field at any one time.

And by the way, it’s not just the All Blacks who do this - who take these enormous squads around the world and put them in business class. It’s also the Black Ferns and the Sevens teams.

But as for the idea of dropping these players down a class on the plane to bring them down a peg and save some money - I suspect there are people who will look at this and think it’s a great idea.

And that’s the part that fascinates me.

How many people out there like the idea that our best rugby players should be forced to sit further down the plane, just like the rest of us?

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