Disliked Christchurch stadium breathes again for All Blacks Test

The unloved Orangetheory Stadium creaks back into use on Saturday, with All Blacks veteran Sam Whitelock delivering a heartfelt reminder of why Test rugby should be played in Christchurch.

After a six-year hiatus, supporters in the city can get their Rugby Championship fix when New Zealand host Argentina.

But many are choosing not to bother.

Despite boasting a capacity of just 20,000, including 3,000 temporary seats, the stadium had still not sold out Friday as locals monitored the weather and mulled the option of watching from the warmth of their homes.

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Asked this week about the stadium’s redeeming features, Christchurch-based All Blacks back David Havili replied: “The cold, the wet, it’s perfect for us.”

Notorious for its exposed location and ungenial infrastructure, the redeveloped former agricultural showground was supposed to be a temporary solution when Christchurch’s deadly earthquake of 2011 ruined the century-old Lancaster Park, one of the hallowed grounds of New Zealand rugby.

Arguments over cost have repeatedly delayed the construction of a new stadium in its place, with the latest resolution being a reduced-capacity covered structure costing nearly $NZ700 million (US$434 million).

That has a completion date of 2026, leaving the city that is the unchallenged power base of New Zealand rugby unlikely to stage many more games before then involving one of the world’s great sports teams.

Lock Whitelock has made just three of his 136 appearances for New Zealand at the venue, but he pleaded with officialdom not to strike his city completely from their schedules.

The earthquake that killed 185 people and forced a stadium change on them was the reason why Christchurch should keep staging Test rugby, he said, even if it doesn’t add up financially or offer the most glamorous environment.

“I saw what the whole community went through, not just here in Christchurch but the whole greater area,” said Whitelock.

“Whether they were a five-year-old kid waiting for their parents to pick them up from kindergarten after a number of different quakes and tremors. Whether they were an older person put under stress that way. 

“It is still great to have Test rugby back here in Christchurch, and important.”