A Magpie at the gate of McLean Park

Hawke's Bay rugby union staff Jo Bayliss (left), Chris Kitto, Dan Somerville, Gary MacDonald and Loren Hann, with their new Magpie. Photo / Warren Buckland

Fans waiting for Hawke's Bay's first match back at rugby union HQ McLean Park will be able to get through the gate emulating the dreams of the opposition, by running straight through a Magpie.

The opportunity comes through the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union's purchase of an inflatable, tunnelled magpie, which will be used at the No 1 gate, off Latham St, as fans roll up for the Mitre 10 Cup round-three game against Counties Manukau on September 2, the first match on the park's new turf.

Union commercial manager Dan Somerville said he'd spotted the magpie inflatables being marketed online and suppliers in China had since worked to tailor their product for Hawke's Bay use.

As a result it will be a symbol of the start of a new era as the union and park owners the Napier City Council celebrate the reopening of the ground following a $4.9 million drainage and turf replacement.

Another will be the screening of the time lapsed filming of the laying of the new hybrid turf, which took just a few days, drawing to an end a project which took about 18 weeks and involved more than 3000 truckloads in and out of the park.

Somerville said watching the progress from the union office was "amazing enough" but seeing it in time lapsed motion would be even more amazing.

He said the union and the council are working together to promote the game, aware that the moment itself will attract a crowd, hopefully boosted further by another Magpies win tonight against Otago in Dunedin.

Hawke's Bay started a two-game South Island "tour" with a 31-10 over Southland in Invercargill last Sunday, and the squad returns to the Bay to put the first sprigs into the new turf in training next week.

No problems are expected. Manufacturers have said that the hybrid surface it has developed, and used already at such stadiums as the MCG in Melbourne and Wellington's Westpac Stadium (the "Cake Tin") is capable of play within a few days of being laid.

Also, the McLean Park job, hastened by drainage problems which forced the abandonment of a New Zealand-Australia cricket match in February 2017, was completed to schedule, with even the rain days arriving almost as if they were part of the programme.