Storm warning for Melbourne fans

Bill Dalton, mayor of Napier with a Storm shirt.

A successful debut on Saturday could see more teams from the world's premier rugby league competition come to the Bay.

Napier will get its first ever taste of NRL action on Saturday when the Melbourne Storm play away-hosts to the St George Illawarra Dragons.

Napier mayor Bill Dalton is hoping for a full house at McLean Park.

Virtually all seated tickets have been sold but he wanted to "pack the park" with a big walk up crowd.

"If we can fill every square foot of the park there is more chance of getting more teams here."

Napier City Council had spoken with three NRL clubs that had also expressed interest in coming to the Art Deco capital.

Star Hawke's Bay rugby league product Tohu Harris provided just the shot needed ahead of this Saturday's game when he sparked Melbourne Storm to a big win on Friday.

The 23-year-old former Hastings Boys' High School student, played his 67th game for the Storm since his NRL debut with the club in 2013. He scored the first of Melbourne's 10 tries in a 52-10 win over Penrith Panthers.

Tohu was given the honour of designing the home sides playing strip for the round 21 match.

The design, embedded mainly in the jersey's lower-half traditional purple, draws on Maori and Pacific Island designs, and highlights the different cultures making up the Melbourne Storm family, while staying true to Storm's traditional colours.

New Zealand TV personality Dai Henwood will be in town for the historic clash.

The pint-sized comic is a passionate league fan and even managed to get his hands on one of the Storm's specially designed jerseys.

"I play fantasy league because, obviously, I am not big enough for real league but I have been lucky enough to get the new jersey designed by Tohu Harris."

Mr Henwood wore his new jersey on comedy show 7 Days to pledge his allegiance to the purple army.

Henwood will perform with fellow funny man Ben Hurley at Napier's MTG Century Theatre on Friday, before warming up the crowd on Saturday.

"It's going to be great and, aside from that, Ben and I are going to be causing some havoc on the day," he said.

"We will be interviewing some players - I will be really mining the deep questions the fans are asking," he quipped.

Melbourne will go into the game as solid favourites as they look to consolidate their spot inside the top four and establish themselves as premiership contenders.

Meanwhile, the Dragons will be looking to fire back after the St George side went down 24-8 to the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

While the long-range forecast for the match is good, there is a chance of the odd shower.

-Sport Hawke's Bay's commercial manager Kevin Murphy said that tickets would be available for purchase from Hastings i-SITE from today.