Napier NRL match starts shaping as possible match of the season

Hastings Man of League Tohu Harris in action for Melbourne Storm in the 2015 NRL match in Napier. He's expected to return to McLean Park next month as captain of the Warriors, who are currently third on the competition ladder. Photo / Paul Taylor

The prospect of Napier’s first NRL rugby league match being one of the big clashes of the 2023 season inched closer to reality when both the Brisbane Broncos and the New Zealand Warriors won on Saturday.

In Round 7 matches, the Broncos had a 43-26 win over the Gold Coast Titans on the Gold Coast, to remain on top of the NRL ladder with just one loss, and in Auckland the Warriors beat North Queensland Cowboys 22-14 to move into third place, having been beaten just twice.

The two sides play a Warriors home game at McLean Park, Napier, in Round 13 on May 27, with the Warriors fresh off a bye the previous weekend and the match being just four days before the first of this year’s Queensland v New South Wales State of Origin matches in Australia.

Among games in the meantime each side has a home clash against current second-placed 2021 and 2022 grand final winner club Penrith Panthers.

Napier City Council events manager Kevin Murphy said he was always hopeful that being the Warriors first match in Napier a large crowd would front regardless of the performances of the two sides.

Asked if extra seating may be installed if the current hopes of it being a top-of-the-table clash are realised, he said: “If we get anywhere near sell-out (16,500-17,000) we’d be very pleased.”

There has been increasing early interest in corporate facilities for the Saturday-night game with businesses seeking tables in both the Graeme Lowe Stand lounges and a pre-match function in the Rodney Green Centennial Events Centre (Centennial Hall).

The two sides will be in Napier for at least two days beforehand, with plans being made for player visits to schools and a public autograph-signing session, with discussions including Mid Central Rugby League zone and Hawke’s Bay district rugby league

Murphy said an aircraft with up to 200 passengers from Brisbane, including supporters and sponsors, will fly into Napier on a chartered Virgin Australia aircraft, via Auckland - similar to arrangements when Melbourne Storm flew in 150 on a charter flight for their 2015 match against St George Illawarra, the only previous NRL game in Hawke’s Bay.

Hastings-born Tohu Harris, the Warriors captain who has played more than 200 NRL matches since his debut for the Storm in 2013, played in the 2015 match at McLean Park.

Major rugby league games at McLean Park have been rare over the last century, with the next biggest being the 1990 Great Britain tour opener against a New Zealand Presidents XIII.

The biggest crowd for a rugby league match in Hawke’s Bay is thought to have been 12,500 at the now-passed Nelson Park, Hastings, for a January 1992 NRL pre-season match involving Manly-Warringah (now commonly known as the Manly Sea Eagles) who, coached by New Zealander Graham Lowe with Kiwis Matthew Ridge and Kevin Iro in the lineup, were effectively New Zealand’s adopted team in what was an all-Australian competition until the entry of the Warriors in 1995.

There were also reports of a crowd of about 5000 for a match between England and North Island at McLean Park in 1920, when the New Zealand population was about 1.24 million, and that of Napier about 14,500.

The road to McLean Park:

Round 8: April 21, Parramatta Eels v Brisbane Broncos, Sydney: April 25, Melbourne Storm v NZ Warriors, Melbourne.

Round 9: April 28, Broncos v South Sydney Rabbitohs, Brisbane; April 30, Warriors v Sydney Rooster, Auckland.

Round 10: May 5, Manly Sea Eagles v Broncos, Sydney; May 6, Warriors v Penrith Panthers, Auckland.

Round 11: May 11, Storm v Broncos, Melbourne; May 12, Canterbury Bulldogs v Warriors, Sydney.

Round 12: May 18, Broncos v Panthers, Brisbane; Warriors a bye.

Round 13: Warriors v Broncos, McLean Park, Napier.