The All Black's loss to the Springboks on Saturday night has led us to thinking about the state of rugby around the world. And, most importantly, the need to grow the game at a higher level.

Although the loss was hard to bare, we love the fact that it was a tight Test that could have gone either way, right down to the last minute - and we think it's healthy for the game that we love so much.

Rugby is played by a huge number of countries across the globe, but for the majority it's still very amateur. Generally, rugby plays second fiddle to soccer, which dominates most people's interest - especially in South America, Africa and Asia.

At present, there are only about eight sides that can compete at the highest level in rugby - New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, France, England, Ireland, Argentina and Wales.

Below these sides, there's Scotland, Italy, Samoa, Fiji, Canada, Tonga, and Japan, but they struggle to keep pace with the top eight. And the reason is simple - they aren't getting regular Tests against the best (with the exception of Scotland and Italy in the Six Nations).

Sides like the All Blacks, South Africa and Australia should be helping to grow the sport in the Pacific, Japan and North America by touring there at the beginning of their Test season, rather than having second (or even third...) string English and French sides tour down-under - which is, quite frankly, a complete waste of time.

You only have to look at the continued development of Argentina to see that regular Tests against the best is the way to strengthen rugby around the world.

A few years ago, Argentina were at the same level the Pacific sides are at now. Now, they're becoming a lot stronger, and have beaten the likes of South Africa, France, Ireland, and Wales - not to mention placing third at last years rugby World Cup.

It's fantastic for world rugby, and needs to start happening to the next level of sides.

We know that most of these countries don't have the numbers to become world champs over night, but with regular Tests against the best in the world, they can start to compete - and maybe even surprise a few sides at the top.

We think it's great that the All Blacks and the Wallabies are playing a one off Test in Hong Kong later this year, as it takes rugby somewhere different - a place where new fans can see the best in the business do their thing.

Rugby will never match the popularity of soccer, but it's about time the International Rugby Board began to spread the game to the corners of the world.

And who knows? In ten years, we might not be talking about a Springbok victory over the All Blacks.

It might be Canada instead.