Wellington, let’s fill stadium for All Blacks vs Italy Nations Champs clash
Monday, 6 July 2026
ANALYSIS: Wellington may not be able to “raise the roof” for the All Blacks, but the city can still show its support for a national team playing entertaining if not yet flawless rugby.
Italy may not quite be France or Ireland, but Wellingtonians ought still to fill Hnry Stadium on Saturday when Dave Rennie’s side plays their second game of the new Nations Championship at a family-friendly time.
On Sunday, there were still some hundreds of tickets left for sale, after New Zealand began their men’s international rugby season with a hectic, shaky but entertaining 34-32 win over an under-strength France at a sold-out crowd of 30,000 at Te Kaha One NZ Stadium in Christchurch on Saturday.
Eden Park is already guaranteed to be full when the All Blacks meet Ireland later this month, with the home side defending an unbeaten record at the venue that stretches back 52 matches and 32 years. That stadium dominance helps ensure that Auckland will always be a cherished venue for the team and their supporters, despite the venue having location, traffic and parking setbacks which guarantees an ongoing debate over the need for a new stadium on the waterfront or elsewhere in the city.
Now, the capital has to follow the show put on at New Zealand’s newest and most attractive venue for major sporting events, to remain a viable host for All Blacks tests, among further competition from Hamilton and an enclosed stadium in Dunedin.
Veteran Christchurch-based rugby reporter Tony Smith wrote following the test versus France that Te Kaha “has already set the bar at Olympic high jump height as Aotearoa’s veritable field of dreams”.
“Spectators are packed so close to the pitch they can almost hear the lineout calls and players feed off the energy from the stands. The central city location is a winner. Tills were trilling and Eftpos machines pinging in hospo haunts pre-and-post match.”
The roofed stadium doesn’t quite match the capacity of the capital’s venue, with room for 34,500 when the All Blacks and Italy kick off at 5.10pm on Saturday, during the school holiday period.
With showers and rain forecast for most of the week, there’s a chance for some brighter weather on Saturday, but the temperature may not rise into double figures.
Putting a lid on Wellington’s stadium is not feasible however - it structurally wasn’t built to hold a roof, and a report a decade ago put the cost of covering it and making it rectangular with retractable seating at as much as $385 million.
The All Blacks flew out of Christchurch on Sunday, but their flight was not directed to Wellington. Instead, in a move understood to have been locked in by the previous coaching regime, the team will base themselves in Auckland until flying south on Thursday afternoon.
Forsaking the home of the Super Rugby champion Hurricanes certainly doesn’t feel like a decision Rennie would make.
Now In charge of the All Blacks after Scott “Razor” Robertson was given the chop in January, the 62-year-old was born in Lower Hutt, and was a teacher and ran a pub in Upper Hutt. He coached Wellington to the NPC title in the stadium’s first year in 2000, after playing for them a decade earlier.
He’ll be aiming to improve the national side’s poor record at the Cake Tin in recent matches. The All Blacks have won just three of their last 10 games here, including suffering their biggest defeat in history on their most recent last visit last September, when they were humbled 43-10 by the Springboks.
Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge has claimed, only partly tongue-in-cheek, that Te Kaha will become “our national stadium”. Wellington and the All Blacks now have an incentive to raise their game.