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Australian rugby shows how far it's fallen with shocker quarter-final crowd in Canberra

Eamonn Tiernan

It was the most incredible Australian rugby story of the decade but nobody turned up to see it.

ACT Brumbies co-captain Christian Lealiifano made his cancer comeback at Canberra Stadium on Friday night - in a Super Rugby quarterfinal no less - and only 9771 fans bothered showing up.

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Hurricanes eliminate Brumbies

The Wellington Hurricanes have eliminated the only Australian side in the Super Rugby finals, with a 35-16 defeat of the ACT Brumbies.

The Canberra Raiders have lost five of their past six games but that didn't stop 14,115 loyal Green Machine supporters pouring through the gates to watch them lose against Melbourne on Saturday.

It's not a Canberra problem, it's a rugby union problem.

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Australian rugby is hurting like never before with crowds, participation numbers and television figures all plummeting.

Australia's five Super Rugby teams broke all the wrong records this season losing all 26 Trans-Tasman clashes - making it 32 on the trot - and have only beaten Kiwi opposition three times in the past two years.

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The Australian conference combined for just 21 wins from 76 games this season and only five of those victories were against foreign opposition.

Fans understandably want to watch their team win and can be forgiven for walking away after such poor results.

But surely if there was only one game rugby fans were going to brave the cold and go watch this season - it was on Friday night.

The match not only marked Lealiifano's incredible return less than one year after his leukemia diagnosis, but it was the final game for one of the greatest Brumbies of all time - coach Stephen Larkham.

Not to mention a farewell for Test stars Scott Fardy and Tomas Cubelli, plus club stalwarts Aidan Toua, Jarrad Butler, Jordan Smiler and Chris Alcock.

If sentiment wasn't enough to get you into the stands - what about watching the best attacking team in Super Rugby history?

The Hurricanes have 10 All Blacks on their books and scored a record 89 tries this season at an average of almost 40 points per game.

The excuses came thick and fast when Brumbies great Matt Giteau slammed the poor attendance on Twitter, with fans citing weather and the Brumbies' minuscule chances of winning.

The cold is the usual scapegoat in Canberra but it was perfect rugby conditions on Friday with temperatures around 5C at kick-off, nothing a scarf and beanie wouldn't conquer.

There were some factors working against the Brumbies: they hadn't played at home in seven weeks as the June Test break once again knocked the wind out of the Super Rugby season.

As a result there was next to no hype leading into the game. I spoke to several punters during the week who didn't even know the Brumbies had made the finals - let alone they were hosting one.

The game simply doesn't catch the imagination of the public like it used to and the only people tuning in these days are the diehards and purists.

In the wake of the game on Friday I posed this question to our sports editor Chris Dutton - if the Brumbies hosted the Super Rugby final this year (which was possible) would it have sold out?

He said he bloody hoped so but I think after the shocker turnout on Friday the answer is an emphatic no.

If that's not the most damning evidence of just how far the game has fallen than I don't know what is.

The fans aren't even turning up for the Wallabies these days with a record-low 13,583 watching Australia play Fiji in Melbourne last month.

We haven't won the Bledisloe since 2002 and the bookies rate New Zealand a $1.04 chance to extend Australia's winless run to a 15th straight year.

I haven't even mentioned the ARU's diabolical handling of cutting an Australian team, which still hasn't been done as the Western Force and Melbourne Rebels remain in limbo in a perfect example of what not to do as a board.

When a team is finally cut the Australian talent pool will run deeper, but the truth is even one Australian side would struggle to win a Super Rugby title at the moment.

The game is dying a death by a thousand cuts in this country and it doesn't look like changing anytime soon.

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