Michael Atkinson: The 'John Howard Index' confirms rugby is back

The second Bledisloe Cup Test in Perth is more than two weeks away and yet there are only a few hundred tickets still available. 

That number might be down in the double digit range by the end of the day, if not zero.

When it sells out, it'll be the sixth Wallabies Test to do so from the last nine matches played on Australian soil. 

Watch the 2025 Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship with every match streaming live and on demand on the home of rugby, Stan Sport

Then throw in a seventh match at the MCG which wasn't a sellout, but drew a crowd of more than 90,000.

Tell me, please, who still thinks rugby isn't 'back?'

On this week's Inside Line, the panel emptied the mailbag of questions from viewers and listeners.

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A lot of chat centred around James O'Connor but many rugby lovers posed questions on the legitimacy of this supposed new golden age.

That's fair. The Wallabies have four wins and four losses in 2025. 

They went within a whisker of winning the second British and Irish Lions Test but still lost the series.

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They pulled off a miraculous win in Johannesburg, but failed to reclaim the Mandela Plate from South Africa. 

They dug deep in Townsville to record an 86th minute winner against Argentina, but couldn't get their hands on the silverware after leaving the fightback too late in Sydney. 

Before all that, they scraped home by the skin of their teeth to beat Fiji in Newcastle. 

Winning is the best advertisement for the game.

No one denies that. 

But even after Saturday's nail-biting loss in front of a record crowd at Allianz Stadium, the mood was Bradley Cooper in The Hangover screaming "We are Back!"

It's summed up best by a conversation I had at my kids' junior rugby club presentation day on Sunday afternoon. 

The club treasurer, Rod Anderson, a slightly intimidating man who likes his rugby teams hard and uncompromising, couldn't wait to chat about the Wallabies.

Rod, bearded and loud, came bounding up to me and said: "Mate, I don't really care if they win or not - if they continue to play like that, I'll back 'em every day."

Hear, hear, Rodney. And Mr Anderson is clearly not alone. 

The crowd at Allianz reinforces that.

Nick Phipps likes to use the 'John Howard Index' on Stan Sport to measure interest in Australian rugby. 

The success, or failure, of the game to capture attention and imaginations can be measured by the number of people seen on a weekend walk clad in Wallabies or Wallaroos gold.

The frequency of hats, jerseys, jumpers, scarves, dog coats (yes, you can get those) or baby onesies has certainly lifted over the last few months. 

Allianz wasn't just sprinkled in gold, it was showered in it. 

That will become the norm so long as spirited, never-say-die, Aussie battler performances are delivered.

And more frequent wins will come, if the current trajectory of performance improvement continues. At that point, the JH Index may need to be redefined.

If - and let's be honest, it's still a BIG if - the Wallabies can win back the Bledisloe for the first time in 22 years, you might even see Howard himself, at 86 years of age, dusting off the old trackie for a stroll.