We now have certainty for our fans and sponsors that our home fixtures will be at Okara Park.Andrew Golightly, Northland Rugby Union chairman The home of Northland rugby, Okara Park, has been given the green light to host fixtures after its reopening was delayed. Okara Park's playing surface was deemed unsuitable and unsafein scrummaging situations due to the colder-than-normal winter for Northland's first home match against Taranaki two weeks ago, so the venue was switched to North Harbour Stadium. However, the ground was allowed extra breathing space with the third round of the Air New Zealand Cup against Auckland staged at Kerikeri at the weekend, and the warm weather in recent weeks has meant Okara Park will be in excellent shape for Northland's August 28 fixture against Otago. Northland Rugby Union chairman Andrew Golightly said the pitch had stood up well to heavy scrummaging this week by the Toll United Northland pack under assistant coach Blair Larsen's direction. It was described by the players as "hard" and had a good cover of grass. Mr Golightly said the reopening of Okara Park would hopefully inspire fans to continue supporting the Taniwha as they had done at Kerikeri Domain and North Harbour Stadium recently. "The 2009 season has presented its share of challenges for Northland with the stadium undergoing development but, as a union,
we have stayed united and will come out better for it in 2010," he said. "We now have certainty for our fans and sponsors that our home fixtures will be at Okara Park." Northland's game against Otago would be the first "home" Friday-night game this season and Mr Golightly urged all fans to make it a "Blue Friday" and turn out in force to support the Taniwha. "Last year, we enjoyed an enormous crowd of over 14,000 when we played Bay of Plenty and it would be tremendous for the team to again see that sort of support," he said. Mr Golightly gave acknowledgment to the New Zealand Rugby Union for the support and encouragement given over Northland's local fixtures while Okara Park could not be used as well as Northland Cricket, who allowed the NRU to use their facilities. Meanwhile, he said the stadium construction was progressing well, with completion scheduled for May 2010. A total of 2000 bucket-seats have now been replaced the old wooden bench seats on the terraces and the positioning of the field will ensure fans are close to the action.
