A REAL NICE touch from the players.
The Hurricanes and the Highlanders meet this Saturday morning in the Super Rugby final, and the 29,000 tickets that went on general sale were snapped up inside 90 seconds earlier in the week, with huge interest in the first all-New Zealand final in nine years.
A further 2,000 tickets were up for grabs on a first-come first-serve basis at a Wellington box office yesterday and a large crowd gathered in the queue to get one.
The hardcore fans waited in line in freezing winter conditions, and their dedication to the cause did not go unnoticed. As a gesture of appreciation for the fans’ efforts, several Hurricanes players turned up out of the blue to reward them with some pizza and hot chocolate to keep them warm as they braved the elements.
Motu Matu’u, Mark Abbott and Callum Gibbons all dropped by to keep the freezing fans company.
And they didn’t even discriminate against the few Highlanders jerseys dotted in the queue.
motumatuu / Instagram
No Wayne Barnes thankfully !!!
Dont speak so soon. Have the quarter final refs been announced yet? I have a feeling we will win our group and get Barnes as ref for our quarter final which would probably be against Argentina. Winner would probably play England. This is the game I do not want Barnes any where near.
Don’t want Barnes on any game!!! Lol
He’s assistant ref 1 for the French match so he’ll go out of his way to interfere in some way…sans doute..!!!
I’m also glad we’ve avoided Barnes – far too fussy a ref, makes himself central to the match, usually to the detriment of the spectacle. Having said all of that, he’s not the worst.
The worst referee – by some distance – in world rugby right now is Romain Poite. That guy is just bonkers – no consistency at all, and clueless at scrum time. There is no pattern to his refereeing except that it is always unpredictable. We have managed to avoid him for all of our group games (he is an assistant to Joubert in the Romania game, but that shouldn’t prove too bothersome).
No Wayne Barnes!!!! Happy bloody days!!!!! Go wan the Owens!!!! Delighted with Owens in the French game!!!! :)
Not bad at all
barnes wouldn’t be allowed ref an England, and he shouldn’t be allowed ref an irish game
Fantastic! Best ref in the world. Had a dreadful feeling opening the article I’d be reading the name we’ve all come to dread…
Decent refs to be fair. All set up nicely…
What a shocker. Shows how corrupt rugby is these days. Sad stuff.
Huh??
Quite predictable, that the Irish get their favourite referee (i.e. – the only one that doesn’t like to penalise Irish sides). The Irish run rugby in the Northern Hemisphere.
In Owens’ last 2 6N matchs between France and Ireland, he didn’t penalise the Irish in 153 minutes (yes, 153, that’s over 2 and a half hours.)
Ya gotta love our Nige..!! :)
The only dodgy ref is Barnes I’m afraid!!!
Don’t forget… Nigel f*cked us over against the all blacks
Interesting, and odd, to note that there is not one Australian referee taking charge of any of the 40 group matches. Their two guys are assistants and TMO only. By contrast, the two Irish fellas have 6 games between them.
FFR 11 (including 4 for Poite!)
IRFU 6
NZR 6
RFU 6
SARU 8
WRU 3
No referees from Argentina, Australia, Italy or Scotland
Best ref for our biggest game and no Barnes, I’m very happy!