Options for 2025 Super Rugby return to Napier’s McLean Park

Hawke’s Bay is not yet out of the running to stage a Super Rugby Pacific match in 2025 with regional franchise the Hurricanes saying it is “one of the options” they are exploring.

Top players in action when Super Rugby Pacific comes to town – the Hurricanes on attack, again, in a 46-3 win over Australian side Western Force at Napier's McLean Park in 2021. A decision is yet to be made on whether McLean Park gets Super Rugby again in 2025. Photo / NZME

The draw for the competition, which starts on February 15-16, was announced earlier this week with five of the seven Hurricanes’ games scheduled for Sky Stadium in Wellington, but leaving venues for matches against the Fijian Drua on February 22 and the New South Wales Waratahs on March 28 yet to be confirmed.

If allocated to Hawke’s Bay, the match is expected to be played at McLean Park, Napier, which last staged a Super Rugby match when the Hurricanes played Australian side Western Force in 2021.

The Hurricanes have played 13 games at McLean Park, for 10 wins and three losses. Two of the wins were over the Waratahs, in 1997 and 1999, while the Drua will be in their third season in Super Rugby and have not yet played in Napier.

McLean Park currently has 14 days of national competition and international cricket scheduled for the summer, including one-day matches on February 14 and February 18, and an international between the Black Caps against Pakistan on March 29.

Hurricanes communications staff said the franchise was exploring options for a “community game” for either of the matches, with one option for a match in Hawke’s Bay.

“We’re still working out logistics and in discussions with a few parties,” they said.

McLean Park also hosts a Freestyle Kings stunt motocross spectacular on February 9.

Last summer clashes with cricket matches, the advent of the Sir Tom Jones concert at the park, and a closure of the park for almost three months for a turf makeover conspired against the staging of any Super Rugby on the park in its early winter timeframe.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 51 years of journalism experience, 40 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.