Grounds for concern for Moana Pasifika

Moana Pasifika CEO Pelenato Sakalia is devastated for the team’s fans that their home game against the Melbourne Rebels on March 8 has been moved to Hamilton.

The Super Rugby Pacific team were due to play their first game in New Zealand this year at North Harbour Stadium, which is where the team are now based.

However, because of turf issues at the rarely used venue, the fixture has been moved to Waikato Stadium.

Sakalia said the team had done a lot of work engaging with local communities, including organising a touch rugby festival, and had hoped that the game against the Rebels would have been part of that.

The field at North Harbour Stadium was resurfaced shortly after Juicy Fest on January 6 and was expected to be ready for Super Rugby game.

However, on Tuesday Sakalia was told by his match-day operations team that they had no confidence that the turf would be in a good enough state in two weeks.

After a meeting with Auckland Stadiums on Wednesday, it was confirmed the game couldn’t go ahead in Albany, so will now take place 140km to the south.

“It’s really disappointing,” Sakalia said. “The biggest disappointment we have is that we’ve engaged extensively with the North Harbour community and they’ve been exceptional. The people of the Shore and our diehard fans from the other side of the bridge. It’s devastating for them.”

The venue change means Moana Pasifika will play only one game in Auckland during the first 11 weeks of the season, their round six fixture against the Blues at Eden Park, on March 30.

When it was clear North Harbour Stadium wouldn’t be available for the Rebels game, Auckland Stadiums worked with Moana Pasifika to find somewhere else suitable.

But Eden Park has the Pink concert, the Warriors are playing at Mt Smart Stadium, Trusts Stadium wasn’t available and Semenoff Stadium in Whangārei has an event that weekend.

Growers Stadium in Pukekohe isn’t up to standard for broadcasting a Super Rugby game, so the next closest was Waikato Stadium.