Hurricanes game popular
Hurricanes boss Avan Lee would like nothing more than a packed CET Arena next month. The Hurricanes play the Brumbies in a Super Rugby clash in Palmerston North on Friday March 1, 23 years to the day since the Hurricanes played the first Super Rugby game against the Blues in 1996. More than 6600 tickets had sold by yesterday, which may have been helped by affordable ticket prices. Lee said ticket sales compared favourably with last year’s Hurricanes match at Napier, where they had 13,000 people, which was more than what Palmerston North had in its past two Hurricanes visits. ‘‘We’re really encouraged by ticket sales,’’ Lee said while in Palmerston North yesterday. ‘‘There are lot of people up here who haven’t seen the Hurricanes for a couple of years. ‘‘We’re hoping for a great crowd.’’ It will be the first Hurricanes game in Manawatu¯ since 2016, when they beat the Western Force 41-6, and it will be the first time the Canberrabased Brumbies have played in Palmerston North.
Napier has hosted the Hurricanes in their one game outside Wellington for the past two seasons.
The Hurricanes start the season this weekend against the Waratahs in Sydney, are away to Christchurch to play the Crusaders, then head to Palmerston North.
‘‘We’re looking forward to coming up here. We’ve got tough away games to start, but then we will be really happy to come to Palmy and play our first home game of the season.
‘‘By the time we get to Palmy we’ll know where they are at and that’s exciting.’’
Lee said the first step for Manawatu¯ to get a derby game against another New Zealand team would have to be a good turnout at this game.
Palmerston North City Council has underwritten previous Hurricanes games in the region financially, but Manawatu¯ chief executive Shannon Paku said it hadn’t happened this year.
Lee said the the risk on the game stood with the Hurricanes.
‘‘That’s the key thing for us is we don’t want the event to be a burden for the union.’’