Visiting New Zealand Soon - out of season?

[Skids]

Mrs Skids & I jet down to NZ this Saturday (4 Feb) and spend the next 3 weeks or so touring South Island. We are taking the odd day off here and there and whilst it would be brilliant if we could catch a local match somewhere, I'm assuming that because it's summer there, it's out of season? Correct?

 

[Ian_Cook]

Correct

Super Rugby starts in NZ on Friday 24 Feb (Highlanders at home to the Chiefs) although there are some preseason games. These are the preseason games in NZ that I know of

Sat 4 Feb
Blues v Hurricanes, Alexandra Park, Epsom - 2.30pm
Crusaders v Highlanders, Darfield RFC Ground - 5.00pm

Fri 17 Feb
Hurricanes v Crusaders, Border RFC Ground, Waverley - 5.00pm
Blues v Chiefs, Suburbs RFC Ground, Auckland -5:30pm


Club Rugby (grassroots) doesn't begin until March.

 

[Skids]

Correct

Super Rugby starts in NZ on Friday 24 Feb (Highlanders at home to the Chiefs) although there are some preseason games. These are the preseason games in NZ that I know of

Sat 4 Feb
Blues v Hurricanes, Alexandra Park, Epsom - 2.30pm
Crusaders v Highlanders, Darfield RFC Ground - 5.00pm

Fri 17 Feb
Hurricanes v Crusaders, Border RFC Ground, Waverley - 5.00pm
Blues v Chiefs, Suburbs RFC Ground, Auckland -5:30pm


Club Rugby (grassroots) doesn't begin until March.

Ian

Thanks. Unfortunately our itinerary doesn't allow us to get to any of those games.

But maybe we can find a bar screening them! :nz:

 

[didds]

cricket it is then!

didds

 

[ChrisR]

If Skids visited the USA in the summertime he could most likely find a 7s tournament happening locally and I had thought that would be similar in NZ. Then I read this commentary:

[FONT=Source Sans Pro, sans-serif]"Barely 10,000 spectators came to the Wellington event. Ever [/FONT][FONT=Source Sans Pro, sans-serif]since the “party” ambiance was withdrawn from the tournament,[/FONT][FONT=Source Sans Pro, sans-serif] fan interest declined dramatically. World Rugby cannot sustain a major sevens tournament with only 10,000 in attendance. A decision must be made soon where to move the Wellington event."

What did they mean by the part in [/FONT][FONT=Source Sans Pro, sans-serif]red[/FONT][FONT=Source Sans Pro, sans-serif]?



[/FONT]

 

[didds]

if its been like any large sevens event I lastattended (probably 80s/90s!) it probably means "not allowed to throw beer at each other for hours on end" and where the action in the middle becomes a distant second to what happens on the terraces/seating

didds

 

[OB..]

I remember going to the Middlesex Sevens when
(a) you could buy 8-pints cans of beer;
(b) in the long gap between semis and the final you could run around the pitch using the (now empty) can as a ball and "score tries";
(c) it was de rigueur to boo London Welsh.

 

[Dan_A]

I remember going to the Middlesex Sevens when
(a) you could buy 8-pints cans of beer;
(b) in the long gap between semis and the final you could run around the pitch using the (now empty) can as a ball and "score tries";
(c) it was de rigueur to boo London Welsh.

(d) Wigan Rugby League entered a team and smashed everyone to win it (awesome side that one).

 

[OB..]

(d) Wigan Rugby League entered a team and smashed everyone to win it (awesome side that one).

1996. Martin Offiah, Shaun Edwards, Andy Farrell, Tuigamala and a young Jason Robinson played for Wigan that year.

My memory was from the 1970s.

 

[didds]

think I was there that year with Wigan (watching - and getting soaked with thrown beer!)

didds

 

[Camquin]

I remember Offiah before he went North playing for Rosslyn Park coming up against Andy Harriman of Quins, who somewhat negated one another.

 

[Ian_Cook]

If Skids visited the USA in the summertime he could most likely find a 7s tournament happening locally and I had thought that would be similar in NZ. Then I read this commentary:

"Barely 10,000 spectators came to the Wellington event. Ever since the “party” ambiance was withdrawn from the tournament, fan interest declined dramatically. World Rugby cannot sustain a major sevens tournament with only 10,000 in attendance. A decision must be made soon where to move the Wellington event."

What did they mean by the part in red?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation...628/Wowsers-have-ruined-the-Wellington-Sevens

 

[crossref]

similar problems with the Twickenham Sevens which reached an all-time nadir in 2015 with a stadium full of extremely drunken fans, all in costume, hyped up by the organised party-atmosphere, and then who went on a drunken rampage through town. According to a lot of stories locally - two people actually died that weekend - one on the railway and one in the river. The railway one was a heart-attack that might/might not be connected to alcohol, the river by all accounts was a drunken attempt to swim across.

in 2016 the RFU restricted the crowd size right back, and marketed it as a family event with a world food festival, and quit the encouraged, themed dressing up.