It has been pouring down in Whangarei, with the forecast predicting more wet weather. However, this has not dampened the eager and cheerful mood of fans.
It's the part-timers against the big-timers in tonight's long-awaited start to the British and Irish Lions' tour of New Zealand.
In one of world sport's classic David and Goliath encounters, some of rugby's highest-paid, prized and pampered stars will trot out at Northland's modest 18,500-seat Toll Stadium to play aKiwi party mix XV - an outfit of semi-pros fused from sheep farmers, students, fruit pickers and property maintenance workers.
On one side, the lucrative Lions - decked out in their white-collared jerseys - are pulling down annual wages well in excess of half-a-million dollars. Plus another $127,000 just for their six-week tour of duty in New Zealand.
On the other, many of the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians don't even play rugby for a living, but fit their love of the game around families and full-time, blue-collar jobs. For some, their wage packet would take a dozen years to earn what each of the 41-strong Lions squad will bank each this season.
The maximum provincial union retainer is $55,000, with the exception of two veteran players per union who can receive up to $85,000.
None of the Barbarians have ever played a full senior test international, whereas the team they're about to run into has been cherry-picked from the international squads of some of the game's strongest nations - England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
So lop-sided is the encounter that even the Lions' Kiwi coach, Warren Gatland, has more provincial caps to his name - 140 for Waikato - than any player in the Barbarians' squad.
On the bright side, at least there's plenty of scope for an upset.
British and Irish Lions players during a pre-tour gathering in London. Photo / file
The scale of the task at hand isn't lost on the underdogs. The Barbarians' most experienced player Dwayne Sweeney, whose 68 caps for the Chiefs represents 66 per cent of his 23-man squad's entire Super Rugby experience, believes the situation's charm is in the group coming together and attempting to acquit themselves in the face of such overwhelming odds.
"It's awesome, we've got Pete Rowe involved from Whanganui - a sheep farmer from Ratahi - it's pretty cool that such a diverse group can come together. Rugby does that, it brings people from all walks of life, upbringings and countries," Sweeney said.
"The boys have been learning all about each other, where they come from and the relationships within the group have really started to gel."
Former Hastings Boys High School student and New Zealand Provincial Barbarians squad member Sam Anderson-Heather. Photo / file
Teammate, Otago's Sam Anderson-Heather, detailed the gruelling routines he and his peers have faced in order to earn selection.
"I'm self-employed, I run a wee property maintenance business down in Dunedin. It keeps me out of trouble and fills my days," Anderson-Heather said.
"It's always tough for rugby players because the requirements of contracts usually at this time of year is that you train early in the morning and late at night, or in the afternoon from five o'clock.
"So for a standard job of 8am to 5pm, you'll find yourself up at 5 o'clock in the morning and won't be home again until 8 o'clock at night.
"I'm quite lucky, working for myself, that I can be a bit more flexible."
But most important to the group, Anderson-Heather said, was pride.
"At the end of the day, respect is probably one of the bigger things on the list for us," he said.
"Obviously, we're unknown to them, everyone knows a lot about those Lions players and I guess personally, you'd like to be able to come off that field, look the opposition in the eye and for him to know that he had a good game out there and he was pushed. That's huge for us."
THE LUCRATIVE LIONS
• The 41 players are set to bank massive amounts over the next six weeks, starting with a base tour fee of $127,000 (£70,000) each. • Across the three tests against the All Blacks, that's the equivalent of $42,333 per game, $529 a minute or almost $9 a second. • Across all 10 tour matches that's the equivalent of $12,700 a game, $158 a minute or $2.60 a second. • That's reportedly a 40 per cent hike on what Lions players were paid for their last tour, in Australia in 2013. • It's on top of the average Lions players wage of $546,040 per year (compared to about $470,000 for the All Blacks). • There are also substantial win bonuses: each player picked up $45,000 (£25,000) for the series victory over Australia four years ago. • Players treated to a four-day rest trip in Queenstown ahead of the final test against the All Blacks in Auckland. • The Lions' resources are so hefty the team flew four tonnes of equipment with them from the other side of the world. • They have come with a 30-member support crew (outnumbering the NZ Provincial Barbarians' squad).
THE BATTLING BARBARIANS
• The maximum provincial union retainer is $55,000, with the exception of two veteran players per union who can receive up to $85,000. • Many of the Barbarians side only play rugby part-time, fitting sport around full-time jobs and family commitments. • The day jobs include sheep farmer Peter Rowe and Tolu Fahamokioa who is listed on an online job networking site as a seasonal orchard worker. • The average annual wage of a farm manager is about $58,000. • None have played a senior international test match. • Only five of the squad have played at any form of international rugby before - at sevens, under-20, university XV and New Zealand Maori levels. • The 23-man Barbarians squad has 103 Super Rugby caps between them - more than half of those belong to Waikato's Dwayne Sweeney (68). • The Lions' Kiwi coach Warren Gatland has earned more provincial caps (140, Waikato) than any player in the NZ Provincial Barbarians squad.
