Chiefs to play Anzac Day Super Rugby Pacific game v Force at Mt Maunganui’s Bay Oval

Wednesday, 15 January 2025

The Chiefs have succeeded with an ambitious plan to stage their Anzac Day Super Rugby Pacific game against the Force at Mt Maunganui’s Bay Oval.

One of the country’s premier cricket venues will undergo a rapid transformation to host its first-ever footy fixture, just 20 days after the Black Caps play there in the final international of the summer in an ODI against Pakistan on April 5.

The round-11 Super Rugby game had come with a ‘TBC’ venue when the draw was unveiled in September, and the Chiefs announced on Wednesday they had landed on a unique location.

With the franchise keen to explore their options of taking a match away from their main ground of FMG Stadium Waikato in Hamilton (which they are contracted to play a set number of matches at each season), and with pre-season fixtures confirmed for New Plymouth and Pukekohe, the preference was to head to the Bay of Plenty, where the Chiefs last played in 2018, in a 23-19 win over the Jaguares in Rotorua.

And it’s been a much longer time between drinks for Tauranga, with New Zealand’s fifth-largest city not having hosted a Super fixture since 2013, when the Chiefs downed the Blues 23-16 at Baypark.

That speedway venue hosted five Super matches in all, the first in 2006, attracting crowds of up to 16,500, while the Chiefs’ only other match in the city was a 22-18 win over the Cats at the Tauranga Domain in 2001, the season FMG Stadium Waikato was being built.

That year also saw Hamilton’s Seddon Park host rugby, with Waikato playing their five home NPC matches at the international cricket venue.

The Tauranga Domain, which has proven a popular boutique venue for Bay of Plenty in the NPC, could have also been an option for Super Rugby, however with no floodlights, and the Friday April 25 game locked into a 7.05pm time slot, it was Bay Oval − which hosted its first cricket match in 2007, its first international in 2014 and its first test in 2019 − which became a prospect to switch codes.

Additionally, the latter venue has almost double the Domain’s capacity. The first two Black Caps’ T20Is against Sri Lanka there last month had sell-out crowds of around 10,000, which is less than 1000 shy of what the Chiefs got to their home game against the Force in Hamilton last season.

The main drawback at Bay Oval is sure to be how far back spectators on the embankments are stationed from the action, but it’s understood if the match is deemed a success, the Chiefs are keen to make it a regular event.

While it will be a first foray into rugby, Bay Oval did get a taste of non-cricket action in 2023, when it underwent a major renovation to become a training field for the Fifa Women’s World Cup.

It was laced with controversy, though, as Netherlands coach Andries Jonker blasted the state of the turf, claiming his players risked injury thanks to cricket pitches in the middle that he said had been promised to be removed.

However, Bay Oval turf manager Jared Carter told the Waikato Times that Fifa had indeed given the all-clear for those cricket pitches to remain, noting half the block had been dug up at that time to change the clay, with sand laid.

This time, Carter said the pitch area will be fully re-grassed, and then it’s “basically water management to soften it up without it getting too soft and slippery”.

He said his team would, in the three weeks post-cricket, be growing the grass around 10-15mm longer to get to the minimum level required for rugby, in what will make for an intriguing new venture for him 15 years into his role at the venue.

“It’s exciting, it’s always good to challenge yourself and learn new things, and do things differently.”