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Ireland Test to New Plymouth

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tommowins

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Ireland test for Taranaki
By MURRAY HILLS and MATT RILKOFF - Taranaki Daily News Last updated 05:00 09/10/2009

The Irish and the All Blacks are coming to New Plymouth next year.

The June test against the Six Nations champion will be the highlight of the year for the Taranaki Rugby Football Union as it celebrates 125 years.

The test, confirmed by the New Zealand Rugby Union last night, will be played at Yarrow Stadium on Saturday, June 12.

"Fantastic, it's a world class match. The Six Nations champions up against the All Blacks â€" it's pretty special," Taranaki rugby union chief executive Mark Robinson said. "We're delighted, absolutely delighted."

Mr Robinson said one of the key factors in Taranaki's bid was that Ireland wanted to come to Taranaki, with one of its pool matches in the 2011 rugby World Cup scheduled for New Plymouth. "They've got one game here and they want to get to know the set-up here."

New Plymouth Mayor Peter Tennent was thrilled with the news. "It's fantastic and I know the people of Taranaki will get behind it.

"Yarrow Stadium was the only NZ stadium to make the top 10 in the world and this will give further proof of why that is.

"It's not just about the stadium, it's about the people that fill that stadium.

"It will be a superb event. It will give Ireland a chance to get to know the facility and the region because it is my hope they will choose Taranaki as their home base during the rugby World Cup in 2011."

New Plymouth's Celtic bar Peggy Gordons will no doubt be a centre of activity for the Irish fans, and owner Bertie Burleigh was pretty chuffed with the news too. "It's a good call. We'll see a lot of Irish people coming to town and I can promise them a good Celtic festival, my friend. We will certainly look after them.

"We'll start planning right away and as long as we cross our Ts and dots our Is we'll have a great couple of nights."

The June climate would rule out the use of a marquee on Egmont St, as has been done in the past, but Mr Burleigh promised that punters would not be disappointed with Taranaki hospitality.

The test will come two years after Taranaki's first test match â€" between the All Blacks and a below-strength Manu Samoa, won by the men in black 101-14 in front of a sell-out crowd of 22,518.

With redevelopment work at Yarrow Stadium expected to be completed by June, ground capacity will increase from 22,500 to 25,000.

Mr Robinson said the success of last year's test was a strong factor behind Taranaki's successful bid.

"We had good feedback after that event on how well it was run," he said.

"The player feedback from both teams was positive, as was the feedback from management. It sent a positive signal to New Zealand that we could host a test successfully."[/b]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news...st-for-Taranaki
 

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