By CHRIS RATTUE
A gale that tore through Dunedin yesterday hit the Carisbrook rugby ground with such force that it snapped a goalpost 15 minutes before the Otago-Waikato game.
But the NPC match went ahead after the teams agreed to play with the upright sticking barely a metre above the crossbar.
With southwesterly gusts hitting 65 km/h, the remaining uprights seemed in danger of suffering the same fate.
Fortunately for referee Paddy O'Brien and his touch judges Mark Milburn and Jonathan White, there were no close goalkicking calls to make, even though Otago wing Brendan Laney missed two shots from in front of the lopsided arrangement.
O'Brien, coaches Kiwi Searancke and Kevin Gloag and the players said they had never experienced anything like it.
The coaches wanted the game to start on time because the players were warmed up, and they were told it would be at least 45 minutes before a new post could be put in place.
O'Brien was concerned about safety when the players had to stand near the other posts in the first 10 minutes.
"If either team was not happy I wouldn't have gone ahead.
"As we ran out I said to the touch judges, 'If it is 20-19 at the end of the game and someone takes a drop goal, we'll see how good we are'."
Waikato won 29-14.
Tempest splits the sticks in half
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