Sport round-up: Rugby defies the conditions

It wasn't too moist underfoot for rugby to go ahead this weekend as pretty much every other sport called the weekend's action off for various safety and weather reasons. Photo/Michael Cunningham

A little bit of bad weather didn't stop rugby from going ahead on the weekend, but it stopped pretty much every other sport.

With playoffs nearing for rugby league, hockey, representative football, and club football, the latest weather bomb to hit Northland this year couldn't have come at a worse time

Hockey Northland called off play on Saturday after assessing the weather in the morning and deciding against it.

A message on their Facebook page said: "Hockey fixtures today will NOT be played due to the continuous bad weather and the current road conditions that some of our hockey members have to face in order to get to their game today.

"All games will be rescheduled at a later date. Thank you all for your continued patience in this matter and keep safe on the roads if you do have to venture out."

Meanwhile, rugby league was called off and as yet there will no re-scheduling of the round lost.

In a statement released, Rugby League Northland said they were concerned about the safety of everyone involved if the weekend's matches were to go ahead.

"The major concern is the forecasted weather for tomorrow, the quality and safety of the grounds and the health and safety aspect of travelling for not only our players, but their supporters.

"In addition, several grounds have been deemed unsafe for play. The Whangarei District Council have closed all Whangarei fields for ALL codes."

Club and representative football, too, was called off but was to be re-scheduled for a later date.

The Northern Football Federation said due to the rain and the closing of some grounds games had been called off.

" No football this weekend, all games postponed, including the North Force v Forrest Hill Milford, NRFL game, and including games in Dargaville and the Far North (Kawakawa, Kerikeri, Taipa)," the Northern Football statement said.

"The NFF Cup games below will also be postponed, unless the home teams are prepared to travel to Auckland, the games could then be played at the way club's ground or could be fixture on an appropriate neutral ground.

"If postponed, will be re-scheduled to be played as soon as possible in Whangarei, which will mean postponing league games to accommodate the playing of the Cup games."