Some of the top women’s rugby players in New Zealand are set to descend on Fraser Park this Matariki weekend.
On Saturday at 2.05pm, Matatū will be looking to build on their lead at the top of the Super Rugby Aupiki table when they take on Hurricanes Poua in Timaru.
It will be the first time the Matatū squad, which represents the regions covered by the Crusaders and the Highlanders, has played a competitive game at Fraser Park after having previously held an open training session there in January last year.
South Canterbury Rugby chief executive Tim Hyde-Smith said one of the big reasons for the Fraser Park redevelopment was to have a venue capable of hosting high calibre events like a Super Rugby Aupiki game.
‘‘I think it was validated when we had the Highlanders and the Crusaders here earlier in the year, so that’s a rubber stamp, and now it’s very exciting that the girls are coming to town.
‘‘I think it’s great not only for our rugby community, but actually for the wider community as well.’’
Game development manager Caro Rhodes said it was great to have Matatū playing at the park, especially after a successful South Canterbury women’s rugby season.
‘‘It’s coming off the back of our first ever combined women’s competition we’ve just had with Mid Canterbury and North Otago.
‘‘We’ve had a really robust competition, which ended with the two South Canterbury sides in the final, Pleasant Point and Geraldine.
‘‘We had about 1000 people out on a Friday night last month to watch the final.
‘‘Support for the women’s game is definitely growing.’’
She said as a curtain-raiser to the Matatū game, a South Canterbury women’s showcase game would be held on field two at 12.30pm.
‘‘It’s a bit of a South Canterbury Fillies [women’s representative team] trial.
‘‘We’ve got two teams playing, team Richards and team Miller, named after our two legends Anna Richards and Jorja Miller.
‘‘It’ll be a real battle between the two teams and it’s a great chance to showcase our local women and how much we’ve grown and evolved our game.
‘‘[The women’s game] is more like old-style rugby, they’re not so much bashing into each other, there’s a high skill level, there’s lots of passing and there’s more and more kicking, which is exciting to see.’’
A girls rugby festival is also being held at Aorangi Stadium today from 2pm-4pm where teams from the U13 girls competition will be playing each other as well as getting to meet members of the Matatū squad.
Mr Hyde-Smith said it was great to see the women’s game growing in the region and that so many clubs were embracing their women’s sides and embedding them into their club culture.
‘‘There are still some challenges for us — lights are one, they play a lot of night games and another is changing facilities, which is an area we’re working on with Sport Canterbury.
‘‘We’re lucky at Fraser Park [to have unisex facilities] but out at other grounds we just need to work out how we can accommodate not only women but the young girls as well.
‘‘That was a big part of the redevelopment as the old facilities weren’t suitable for females and it’s quite hard to grow a game when your facilities aren’t up to scratch.’’
Rhodes said South Canterbury was very lucky to have Fraser Park and hoped the community would come out in full force to support the upcoming match.
‘‘We want Matatū to come back and they’re only going to come back if they have a great experience.
‘‘We want to pack the stadium out and see lots of South Canterbury support for a women’s team.
‘‘We’re hoping Sophie Kerr’s still in the side because she’s a local Mackenzie girl, so it’d be really exciting if we could show our love and growth of the sport through attendance on Saturday.’’
Hyde-Smith said South Canterbury Rugby was very grateful to the likes of Venture Timaru, Temuka Transport, Timaru District Council and South Canterbury Toyota for being the main drivers behind the upcoming game.
‘‘It’s about us engaging with our local community and having people get in behind.
‘‘If we can continue to deliver games like this, who knows, we might get some more high profile games in the future as well.’’
Tickets for game can be bought from the Ticketmaster website and limited concessions will be available at the gate on match day.
