Rugby as the nation's number one sport is suffering a decline in public support -- and it is being hit in the pocket.

Too much rugby, money taking over, players' off-field behaviour tarnishing the game's image, confusion over rules, too many game stoppages and worries about professionalism were all cited in a survey of 2100 people by Buzz TV for TV3's Campbell Live.

The survey found 46 percent were less interested in rugby than they used to be.

The top reason cited was there was simply too much rugby.

Seventy-six percent believed money had become the driving force behind the game and 72 percent believed the off-the-field behaviour of players was negatively affecting public support for the game.

Forty percent admitted their waning passion for rugby was being replaced by an increasing interest in rugby league.

Rugby fan Baden Kerr said rugby players' bodies were turning into commodities.

"They're not respected for human beings who are getting battered around every week," he told Campbell Live.

There were also concern about professionalism.

"Our better players got sucked away to the Super 12 or Super 14 unions -- and they don't seem to come back," said another fan James Lowry.

Counties Manukau is one of a number struggling to survive. It faces a $500,000 budget shortfall, caused by the collapse of its main sponsor and declining revenues. The problem lay with running two fully professional competitions (the Super 14 and Air New Zealand Cup), said chairman Matthew Newman.

"We're one of a handful of unions that have grave financial issues that we are dealing with.

"That middle tier, that provincial tier where we have a salary cap of $2.2 million and a host of unions attempting to raise a million -- the money simply isn't there," he said.

Major union Canterbury has also been hit by the failure of its main sponsor and spectator numbers are poor.

Two days out from this weekend's Christchurch All Black versus Italy test match and there were still had 11,000 unsold tickets.

The Super 14 is also suffering and in the past six years average crowd attendance across the country has decreased by 32 percent.

New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew said the union had to listen to such survey results.

The union did not take for granted the fact rugby was New Zealand's most popular game, he said, but it was a balancing act to attract money into the game while not killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

People wanted less big game rugby but most of the union's sponsorship came from the All Black test matches, Mr Tew said.

He admitted the union was not as comfortable as it would like to be with the number of tests played.

"We need to cut back from the number of tests we are having, but inevitably the big money drivers are All Black test matches."

That allowed the best players to be kept in New Zealand and for the union to run the business of rugby.

"We have given very careful consideration to finding a balancing act, from having enough games to make the commercial side of the game work and being able to preserve what is very special about it."