Southland leaders to discuss potential All Blacks test bid

Wednesday, 27 March 2019

Southland-raised Damian McKenzie could get to play a test match in Invercargill if Southland is successful in bidding for a All Blacks test.

Various Southland community, council and business leaders will gather at Rugby Park on Thursday to work through a potential bid for an All Blacks test match in Invercargill.

The idea of an All Black test in Invercargill was first publicly floated last year by Invercargill Licensing Trust board member Sean Bellew.

Bellew believed a test match would be much bigger than rugby given it would provide the province with a destination event.

He said the idea would be to build a food festival around the All Blacks test to showcase Southland products.

* Rugby boss returns after Samoan sojourn

* Rugby Southland re-appoint Brian Hopley as general manager after stint in Samoa**

Rugby Southland general manager Brian Hopley has been leading the potential bid for a 2020 All Blacks test against Scotland or Argentina.

Hopley will address the various community, council, and business leaders on Thursday to get a more definitive indication of what level of funding could be drummed up.

The Invercargill Licensing Trust, Community Trust of Southland, Venture Southland and the Invercargill City Council teamed up in 2015 to put a $200,000 bid to promoters Duco Events to get the Joseph Parker fight in Invercargill.

A similar sort of partnership would be needed to be formed to attract an All Blacks test south, but at a cost believed to be closer to $1 million.

Bellew said the meeting was about working out what financial backing it had when they could put a bid to New Zealand Rugby.

He indicated initial discussions had been positive.

'I'm bullish that we can put something significant together.'

Hopley said New Zealand Rugby required the tenders by April 18.

The All Blacks test schedule has grown over the years, which has prompted New Zealand Rugby to look outside the bigger centres – Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin – when allocating home test matches.

New Plymouth has previously hosted All Blacks tests and last year the All Blacks played Argentina in Nelson after the Tasman Rugby Union bid for a test.

Tasman rugby officials have spent some time in Invercargill working alongside Hopley to help provide information around what was required in putting together a strong tender.

Initially it was thought 20,000 could fit into Rugby Park but Bellew said with some reconfiguration the capacity could be increased to 22,500.