Highlanders ready for Covid-19 milestone as first to host pro rugby match with crowd

As Jacinda Ardern confirmed what many sports fans had be hoping yesterday afternoon, the Highlanders and Forsyth Barr Stadium were already springing into action to make those hopes a reality for Saturday.

With New Zealand moving to Alert Level 1 overnight, sporting events are now able to have unrestricted numbers in attendance – meaning Saturday’s Super Rugby Aotearoa curtain-raiser in Dunedin will be a historic moment in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Highlanders CEO Roger Clark put it simply for 1 NEWS.

“There’s been a lot of scenarios planned but this was always going to be the best one,” he said.

Tickets for Saturday night’s Highlanders-Chiefs clash went on sale soon after the Prime Minister’s announcement and already fans are flocking to get their hands on them.

And for anyone nervous about heading along, Forsyth Barr Stadium’s Terry Davies said precautions are in place to ease people’s minds.

“What you’ll find on the weekend is every seat will have the Ministry of Health QR code behind it,” he said.

“And on the night the cleaning process here will be three-fold compared to pre-Covid.”

The southern match will now kick off at 7:05pm rather than the originally scheduled 5 o’clock as teams are able to travel normally.

The two-hour shift is clearly a Pay TV-move as well, helping ratings here along with anticipated audiences in the UK and Europe who are still without any sporting action.

New Zealand Rugby’s head of professional rugby Chris Lendrum added the move wasn’t just for those critiquing from the couch though.

“We think its going to give an opportunity for people on Saturday nights to get along to the game too.”

Officials hope to get similar crowd numbers on Saturday night as those experienced in 2017 when the Highlanders faced the British and Irish Lions in front of a packed-out crowd.

Clark added he hopes the similarities between that epic encounter and Saturday’s derby don’t stop at another superb Highlanders win though.

“It's about getting the country back to business and back to normal,” he said.

“We're excited being able to start that.”