Eden Park chaos spurs pledge for RWC crackdown

Security staff deal to a pitch invader during the Kiwis v Kangaroos test. Photo / Richard Robinson

Rugby World Cup organisers are vowing to beef up security and police presence at next year's tournament, to prevent a recurrence of the mayhem at Eden Park at the weekend.

Stadium managers say they will learn from the Four Nations rugby league debacle, which left some of the 44,500 fans declaring they would never return to watch another game there after bottles and missiles were thrown at players and spectators.

Disgusted fans contacted the Herald and vented their anger online yesterday.

Eden Park Neighbours Association president Mark Donnelly labelled the stadium's management "incompetent".

"People were getting tanked up before they went in ... The liquor ban was a complete mockery. There were bottles all over the place ... They've really got to step up and run a proper venue. It was a shambles."

One Kiwi fan told an Australian news website: "It was disgusting and embarrassing. Nothing will change here, and people are already scrambling to say it wasn't really anything. This will be a major issue at the World Cup next year and New Zealand will be a laughing stock."

RNZ 2011's general manager of tournament services, Nigel Cass, said a review of Saturday's match between New Zealand and Australia - the first big test at the newly refurbished park - would occur this week.

Cup Minister Murray McCully yesterday called for a report on the match, which both he and Prime Minister John Key labelled "disappointing".

Mr Key this morning said told TVNZ's Breakfast there would be a review of the security arrangements and policies ahead of the World Cup but people were also expected to act like grown ups.

"Even if you say there's no booze that will be sold at Eden Park you can't stop people pre-loading and having far too much alcohol before they get there, you can't stop them buying a pottle of chips and they can go and throw that onto the field if they want, he said.

"People who go to the rugby World Cup are going to pay a lot for a ticket and they really need to think about whether they engage in that sort of behaviour, because if they do they're going to be thrown out."

Mr Cass said the RWC crowds would be far more tightly controlled.

"There's far greater supervision of liquor outlets, a lot tighter controls around intoxication, we're putting in place monitoring so we can do things like close bars more quickly if we have to, and work with the police to get intoxicated patrons removed if we have to do that."

Mr Cass said up to 30 specially trained "alcohol monitors" would be on hand during Eden Park RWC matches to monitor intoxication levels, both at bars and at the gates.

Fans would initially be allowed to buy four cans of Heineken, which would be reduced to two if there were problems. If problems continued, bars would be closed.

The fact there were two matches in a row on Saturday had likely caused problems, Mr Cass said.

"We need to recognise that Rugby World Cup is a very, very different event. We don't have any back-to-back games at a single venue. It does create different challenges when you've got people on site for four or five hours as opposed to two or three hours."

Mr Key said the disorderly behaviour was "not how we want to showcase the country when we host the third biggest sporting event in the world".

"At the end of the day, there are always those risks that someone in the crowd does something stupid, but I think people have to understand that if they do then ... that will almost certainly see people removed from the Rugby World Cup.

"The cost of tickets is extremely high and I think it is unlikely that people are going to want to put at risk being able to see the match by engaging in loutish-type behaviour."

Eden Park CEO David Kennedy defended the park's management, saying many fans had had a good time.

However, management planned to be more proactive and would have more police and security in future.

"We're very confident about our preparations for the World Cup next year and we'll work with Rugby NZ, the World Cup people, to use the experience from [Saturday] night to make sure everybody has a safe and enjoyable time."

Asked what he had to say to fans who had vowed never to go back to Eden Park, he said: "We as well are disappointed with some elements of the crowd's behaviour and we will certainly work to ensure that doesn't happen again."

Police said they were also confident that the "ugly" alcohol-fuelled crowd behaviour, which resulted in six arrests, would not be repeated.

Superintendent Brett England, Auckland City operations chief, said police were not happy with the amount of alcohol consumed.

"The fact that public transport brought people into the grounds along with a lot of alcohol for them to consume will be addressed. A debrief will be held later in the week.

"Clearly there are some factors that will require closer scrutiny as a result of the issues that arose through the unruly crowd behaviour."

- additional reporting James Ihaka and Claire Trevett