Russians plan open training session

Rugby fans will be able to get a glimpse of world class rugby players when three international Rugby World Cup teams train in Tauranga next month.

The Russian team have confirmed they will host an open training session at Baypark Stadium on Friday, September 23, which the public is invited to attend.

Tauranga City Council yesterday confirmed fans will be able to get up close and personal with Russian rugby stars, when the team train from 10am-11.30am at the stadium.

But the two other international teams training in the Western Bay have opted to keep their practices a secret, Tauranga City Council events delivery manager Penny Mitropoulos said. Samoa and Fiji have both decided to have private training sessions.

"Samoa have a closed training at Baypark so that one will be easy to manage but Fiji are training at the [Tauranga] Domain and that's a bit harder to sort out," she said.

To accommodate the Fijian team's wishes, Tauranga City Council will erect a fence at the Tauranga Domain while the team is training. It is expected the fence will go up on Sunday, Ms Mitropoulos said.

"They will start working on the infrastructure set up where the current club sitting facilities, the bowling club and croquet club are," she said.