Live rugby sees bars open early

Ruck n Maul Sports Bar staff member Stefan Mitchell is ready to show the Rugby World Cup games with a buffet breakfast Photo/ Ben Fraser

Buffet breakfasts and plenty of live rugby will be served up at Rotorua pubs during the up-coming Rugby World Cup.

Some Rotorua bars will open early during the six-week tournament, starting tomorrow, to accommodate live matches. The matches are being played anytime between 11pm to 8am each day.

Ruck 'n Maul Sports Bar owner Henry Mitchell said they would try and air every game live.

He said for the 7am and 8am games they would be running a $10 cover charge with a buffet breakfast included.

"We've got to attract people some how," he said.

"We hope to get a good atmosphere, but it is hard to know how many people will come out, especially for the matches in the middle of the night."

Mr Mitchell said they would also have giveaways like All Black hats and t-shirts.

He said the only live matches they weren't sure about opening up for were mid-week games between the smaller nations, but he encouraged people to ring in and book if they were interested.

"We are doing fan pick-ups and drop-offs as well [if you call ahead]."

Hennessy's Irish Bar operations manager Sue Burnett said they would also be airing all the games.

"Every game will be shown live, or re-played, and all the times are out the front [of the pub]," Ms Burnett said.

"We will have a lot of games live and the games which are live will all have breakfasts available."

She said at a guess she expected the most popular pool match of the tournament to be the England versus Wales.

"Historically the home countries draw the biggest crowds for us."

She said at least 10 groups had already contacted them to book games in, including a group of Namibian supporters who were in town during the match against Georgia on October 8.

Legislation pushed through Parliament late last month allows pubs to air games early in the morning.

Hennessy's was one of a small number of pubs granted a special license to operate over the world cup previous to the legislation going through.

Hennessy's will be airing every All Black game live apart from their first match on Monday morning at 3.45am. However, the Ruck 'n Maul will have that game on live.

The Turf Bar on Arawa St will be showing the opening two matches live this weekend, with the potential to open for other matches, while the Colonial Tavern in Owhata is also considering opening early for matches.

Rotorua bars showing live matches:

Ruck 'n Maul Sports Bar (all games live)

Hennessy's's Irish Bar (all games either live or re-played)

Turf Bar (opening two matches live)

Many other bars, taverns and clubs are considering showing
the final or semi-finals live.

This is not an extensive list