It will come as no surprise that the Canterbury Rugby Union's generosity stretches only so far.
Having thrown open the gates at AMI in Christchurch for Saturday's NPC game, union officials were greeted by a crowd of 34,000 for the rematch of last year's final against Wellington.
Their players responded with the result the big crowd wanted, too, coming from behind for a sparkling bonus-point 37-30 win which bumped them from fourth to second place on the standings at the end of the ninth round.
They approach the business end of the competition on 31 points, tucked in behind leaders Southland, who improved to 34 after grinding out a tough 9-6 win over Auckland in their Ranfurly Shield defence in Invercargill on Thursday.
The scoreline from the southern venue was something of an aberration as the remaining six matches in the round produced no fewer than 46 tries and 381 points.
Canterbury leapfrogged Auckland and Taranaki into second place after Taranaki suffered an unexpected setback in Napier where Hawke's Bay stirred to life after a lacklustre campaign to register a 32-24 win, just their second of the season.
The two bonus points pocketed by Wellington were enough to see them hold on to fifth place on 27 points, one ahead of Waikato and Bay of Plenty, with early pacesetters Counties-Manukau still in the reckoning after a rousing 40-24 win over Northland yesterday promoted them to eighth place on 25 points
The Canterbury union's gesture of free entry, three weeks after the southern city was rocked by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, proved popular with the assembled crowd, who also delighted in their team's fightback after they trailed 13-20 at halftime when Wellington's stand-in captain Hosea Gear scored two tries to spur his side ahead.
Another eight tries were served up in Napier where Hawke's Bay, stung by criticism after a series of inadequate performances, started with all the momentum of a runaway freight train to streak out to a 25-0 lead in as many minutes. Taranaki were left stunned as Jason Shoemark, Ryan McLeod and Hika Elliot crossed for tries and the visitors' cause was not helped by the early sinbinning of prop Michael Bent.
First five-eighth Stephen Donald was an influential figure as Waikato saw off Tasman 33-15 in Hamilton, setting up the second of their three tries and landing a perfect seven-from-seven goalkicks for 18 points.
Canterbury's generosity pays dividends
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