37 NELSON HOSTS A TEST
It was an anomaly that Nelson was the venue for the first game of rugby played in New Zealand, but until 2018, had never hosted an All Blacks test.
The city has a special place in New Zealand rugby history and while it doesn’t have a huge population or a state-of-the-art stadium, it still felt wrong that it had never been given the hosting rights for a test.
That was put right in early September when the Pumas played the All Blacks at Trafalgar Park.
The city embraced the fixture and 21,000 people saw an outstanding game of rugby that the All Blacks won but not without a supremely good contribution from Argentina who scored three good tries and played long periods of good football.