Crusaders Win Preseason Game at Mangatainoka

Crusaders Win Preseason Game at Mangatainoka
(Crusaders 19, Hurricanes 8)

Crusaders lock Sam Whitelock wasn’t intimidated by 8000 Hurricanes fan when his team took to the field in a Super Rugby pre-season game at Mangatainoka today.
Whitelock, who along with his brothers George, Luke and Adam and cousin Ben Funnell, helped his Crusaders team to a 19-8 victory over the Hurricanes this afternoon, said he enjoyed returning to the very region in which his rugby career began. Whitelock and his siblings grew up on a dairy farm about 30 minutes from Mangatainoka and attended Feilding Area High School. It was only the second time since 2003 all four brother had played at the same time.
“It was good to come back and get a bit of stick from the crowd and from friends and family … it was pretty good,” he said after the game which was played in front of a sold out crowd packed into the specially-made stadium on Neil ‘Skin’ Symonds farm.

“I obviously knew where the ground was but I was interested to see what it was going to be like but I think the crowd really made it and the field was really awesome as well,” he said. “It was cool to be out there with all of them. The game was going pretty quick so I didn’t really have a lot of time to look around see what they were doing but it was cool to have them out there as well.”

Rugby fans as far afield as Hong Kong and Australia were in the crowd in a day which emphasized the theatre of going to see rugby in a true grassroots setting.

Richie McCaw, who on Thursday night was presented the Halberg Award for Sportsman of the Year, arrived at the ground by helicopter with 5-year-old Bella Rogers and Hannah Austin from Masterton, to the delight of over 8000 fans.

Neil ‘Skin’ Symonds, who owns the farm on which the Mangatainoka RFC is located, kicked off the game while passionate rugby fans adorned in their regional colours visibly enjoyed the unique setting. One thousand red and yellow bucket heads also made a colourful impact in the stands with money raised from their sales going to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. After the final whistle, players from both teams stayed on the field to sign autographs and have their photographs taken with fans including Rugby World Cup winning captain Richie McCaw who was swamped by fans.
Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder was pleased with his team’s second pre-season hit out in as many weeks and was wowed by crowd at Mangatainoka.
“I was really pleased with our lineout and our scrum a lot of facets of play at the break down,” he said.
“We ‘ve taken our franchise to the West Coast and place like, but it felt really good to be here – it’s our first time so there’s a novelty effect and I think what Tui and Mangatainoka have done is just superb.”
Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett said he wasn’t fazed with the score line.
“We probably turned down 10 shots at goal and we did it for a reason … we wanted to check out our line-out against what was effectively an All Black pack so we had some challenges around that but we also did some really good things as well. So in terms of where we were last week to where we were this week, we are tracking in the right direction.
Today’s game follows the success of two previous sold out pre-season games involving the Hurricanes franchise. Alistair MacDougall, a local icon and former Board of Governors for the Mangatainoka Domain for 48 years, was thrilled with the turnout.

“To see any of these games played here in the last three years it gives you a tear in the eye. To think a place like this has the ability to host a game like this, a sellout game, is remarkable.”

Tui teamed up with key match day supporters to make the day possible including: PGG Wrightson, Norwood Farm Machinery, Sharpes Stockfeeds, Hirequip, K+M Print, MoreFM, and Altum.

Crusaders 19 (tries: Ross Kennedy, Patrick Osborne, Tyler Bleyendaal; conversion T Bleydendall; pen: Tom Taylor); Hurricanes (tries: Beauden Barrett pen: B Barrett).