Mangatainoka Hurricanes game sells out

MURRAY WILSON/ Manawatu Standard

GETTING READY: Mangatainoka's Neil Symonds, left, and Tui marketing manager Nick Rogers on the seating looking out at the field that will host the Super 14 pre-season match between the Hurricanes and the Blues. More than 7500 people are set to attend the sold-out game.

MURRAY WILSON/ Manawatu Standard

LET THE BUILDING BEGIN: Construction is under way to have a Mangatainoka paddock ready to host a pre-season Super 14 game next weekend.

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If you were planning on going to the Hurricanes pre-season match against the Blues in Mangatainoka next weekend, you're out of luck.

Last night all 7690 tickets to the game, which is to be played on Neil Symonds' farm on Saturday, January 23, had sold out, nine days before the game.

The attendance figure could climb to more than 8000 because children under 10 can enter free with a paying adult.

The temporary scaffolding, more than 125 tonnes of it, was being set up this week and will seat the spectators who will witness a truly grassroots event.

Tui marketing manager Nick Rogers said it was a unique opportunity to see such a game in the Tararua village.

"It's not a huge commercial venture. Those that come, we want them to have a special time and have a story to tell," he said.

"You will not get more grassroots than in little old Mangatainoka and I think that's what the New Zealand public has been pining for a little bit."

The cost of the scaffolding was more than $100,000 and while Tui won't turn a huge profit, it won't lose money on the venture.

Having the match in Mangatainoka was a plan cooked up over a few Tuis at their forceback competition they used to run, three years ago.

It was pitched to the Hurricanes management who never threw the idea off the table.

With the help of Symonds lending his land and all parties coming together, it got off the ground.

Schools, kindergartens and community groups from around Southern Hawke's Bay, Bush, Wairarapa and Manawatu were getting on board, from running food stands to manning the bar.

Logistically it has been an exhaustive exercise bringing in toilet and shower blocks, the seating and arranging parking. "We've got ourselves a mini-Cake Tin," Symonds, a Hurricanes season ticketholder for the past 12 years, said. "We're not going too far away from the grassroots rugby."

The Hurricanes will use the toilets and showers in the old Mangatainoka Rugby Football Club stand, which was restored three years ago.

While the club, formed in 1886, has been in recess since 1986, Symonds said it was important for the community to have the stand, because it was iconic.

Punters won't be sitting in the old stand for the game next weekend because it will be obstructed by the temporary seating, but you would rather be closer to the action.

"What other grounds in the country are that close to a tryline?" Rogers asked. "It's just going to look magic."

With the population of Mangatainoka between 200 to 300, having close to 8000 people in the area at once would be like Auckland's population swelling to 64 million.

Rogers said the event was a special moment in his career. "What chance do you ever get to say, `I organised a Super 14 game in a paddock'?"

On the day there is a curtainraiser between Tui Invitation XV and a Mangatainoka RFC Invitation XV featuring Manawatu legends and up-and-comers. Fans will be entertained throughout the day by bands and on-field events.

- © Fairfax NZ News