The likes of the Brumbies and the Waratahs are apparently suffering in the popularity stakes © Getty Images

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I had a debate with some mates of mine over the weekend after we had just sat through an epic session of four games of Super 14 rugby, the AFL pre-season final and the first games of the rugby league season - and we would have taken on the English Premier League had we not collapsed due to exhaustion

The question we posed was this: What is the 4th ranked sport in Australia? Is it Australian rules, rugby league, rugby or soccer (let's call it that and not football for the benefit of this article)

Mate #1 said rugby league after a troubled week off the field with headlines about players misbehaving and getting drunk on the eve of the competition. Well, despite all of that, the crowds for the first weekend were up despite some torrential weather and the clash with AFL grand finals and Bushfire relief concerts. The football on-show was great and the headlines of last week are now but a memory.

Mate #2 chose soccer primarily because the sport is still in its infancy - in addition the grand final is done and dusted and there is only a 10 team competition here.

But here is the scary thing, myself and mates #3 and #4 all chose rugby.

Out of five guys, three of us (all absolute experts in our field) chose the game they play in heaven. Rugby is now the 4th ranked sport in this country and I will tell you why.

The Super 14 competition is still being over refereed and is causing fans to walk away in droves because quite frankly we have no idea what's going on. The players don't know so how are we expected to understand? And over the past few days, one of international rugby's top coaches, Irishman Eddie O'Sullivan, came out and labelled Super 14 boring and a dud. "I'm not that taken by the whole thing," he said. "I don't agree with the law changes. The dynamics of the game I don't like. It just doesn't do anything for me."

Well Eddie, we agree with you, and I've been saying it for some time.

But the issue goes further than just that. This past fortnight the biggest story about rugby in this country featured an ex-rugby league player, Sonny Bill Williams, being picked for the Barbarians vs Wallabies match in June. This same guy ran away from his NRL contract last year mid-season and by my reckoning is surely not in the top 250 players in the game right now, hardly a person who would be picked in a Barbarians invitational side let alone the first guy picked!

(This from the Barbarians' website: The only criteria a player must fulfill to receive an invitation from The Barbarians are that the player's rugby is of a good standard and that they behave themselves on and off the field.)

Ahem... running away from a contract and being on the bench for a side more often than not hardly makes the grade. Anyhow, that being the case they picked him.

The other big story was about expansion of the Super 14's to include another Aussie team. Now in the current economic environment I'm tipping expansion is not what most teams are thinking about. Try survival.

When your major sponsors come from the pointy end of town, and at the moment most are copping it left right and centre, expanding a competition for the sake of it doesn't seem like a smart idea.

Soccer is expanding. Two more teams will join the A League next year. The Socceroos are a sure bet to make the World Cup and when they do soccer will be called football and we will jump on the bandwagon the same way we did four years earlier. And guess what - a lot of us will stay on the bandwagon.

NRL despite its shortcomings is still #2 and will survive for years to come. They had the 100 year centenary last season and the only thing they didn't have a top 100 countdown for was the atrocities committed over the years the game has been played. Yet despite all of them, and there have been plenty, it survives. It is a surviving game.

The punters, blue collar especially love it, and when times are tough footy may well be their one saving grace so forget about all those saying rugby league is dead. It's well and truly alive and kicking.

And AFL, well it's #1 with a bullet. Like or hate it, the AFL have got it right. They get the most money for TV, internet and radio deals. They get the most fans. They get the best TV ratings and the clubs survive on memberships, not private ownerships. And while some in other codes boast about hitting five and eight thousand, AFL clubs can claim twenty five thousand with a waiting list to buy tickets.

So, in a country of 20 million plus where only a few short years ago when we held an amazing Rugby World Cup the game was number one, the sport now finds itself languishing in the popularity stakes.

And if you don't believe me or my mates, ask your own.