New Zealand rugby fans found the perfect tonic for their growing discontent when tiny Southland province won the Ranfurly Shield, the nation's premier challenge trophy, for the first time in 50 years.
Recent marketing surveys have shown interest in rugby in New Zealand, where the sport is seen as an intrinsic part of the national psyche, has reached its lowest point since measurement began in 1993.
Television and live audiences are declining and 39 percent of respondents to the UMR Research survey said they were "not that or not at all" interested in rugby.
The 60 percent who said they were "fairly or very interested" represented a 12 percent decline on previous surveys.
Many fans in the 750-person sample complained that there was simply too much rugby, and too many games were of poor standard or of little consequence.
The current first-class season in New Zealand begins with the Super 14 in early February and continues until the All Blacks return from end-of-year tours in December.
The Super 14 championship, criticized for conflicting with the cricket season, has been seen as repetitive and inconsequential.
The Tri-Nations tournament sees New Zealand, Australia and South Africa - the world's top three teams - play each other up to three times annually, which fans say diminishes the prestige of those games.
The one bright spot, drawing jaded rugby fans back to their couches, has been the National Provincial Championship which has several small provinces such as Southland perform well above their ranking.
The championship has been played under a shadow this season. The New Zealand Rugby Union has announced it will eject four teams from the premier championship at the end of the current season, cutting the tournament from 14 to 10 teams.
Several of the smaller provinces, in line for relegation to a new, amateur second division, have outperformed the All Blacks-laden major provinces which are immune from the threat of demotion.
In doing so, they have rallied many rugby followers to their underdog cause.
Southland's 9-3 win Thursday night over Ranfurly Shield-holders Canterbury, home province of All Blacks captain Richie McCaw and star flyhalf Daniel Carter, gave the sport a shot in the arm.
The Christchurch stadium was only half full because of construction work but more than half the small crowd were Southland supporters, most of whom had traveled more than hundreds of kilometers from the southern city of Invercargill for the match.
Hundreds more greeted the team when it flew into Invercargill airport for a planned parade through city streets.
Coach Dave Henderson, whose father was a member of the last Southland team to win the shield, in 1959, said he was overwhelmed by the occasion.
"It's huge eh? You dream about this," he said.
