Hawke's Bay union commercial and marketing manager Jay Campbell. Photo / Paul Taylor
Hawke's Bay union commercial and marketing manager Jay Campbell. Photo / Paul Taylor
The Hawke's Bay Rugby Union is looking to appeal to the holiday crowd to help fill McLean Park in Napier next week for what would have been one of the hardest matches of the season to promote, had it not been for the Ranfurly Shield.
The match between the in-formHawke's Bay Magpies and the out-of-sorts Wellington Lions comes in the first week of the school holidays, but in the unfashionable ITM Cup inter-provincial time slot of 7.35pm on a Wednesday.
Hawke's Bay union commercial and marketing manager Jay Campbell, who as a father is aware the school holidays start this weekend, said the union was looking at ways of promoting the event.
It is seen as an opportunity in the hope of matching the 10,000-plus fans for each of the two defences since the Magpies lifted the shield with a 27-21 win over Counties Manukau at Pukekohe on August 30, both of which were played at weekends.
However, holidaying youngsters unlikely to be at the match, will be some of Hawke's Bay's future stars, who will be among more than 120 playing for Wairoa, Napier, Hastings East, Hastings West, Central Hawke's Bay and Dannevirke in the Ross Shield primary schools tournament starting on Tuesday, in Wairoa.
The date and time of next Wednesday's game was set in the ITM Cup draw decided more than six months ago.
That it would also be a shield match became clear only after the Magpies had fended off challengers Otago on September 14, and Bay of Plenty last Saturday.
Early weather forecasting is not promising, with the MetService's computer-generated outlook predicting a fine Tuesday and start to Wednesday, before showers and light winds.
