Northland may get giant goalposts for Cup

Stewart McElwain. Photo / Supplied.

Visitors to Northland will be left in no doubt they are arriving in a rugby-mad province during next year's Rugby World Cup.

That's because - assuming the regional promotion group Northland 2011 gets its way - they will have to drive under a giant set of goalposts to get there.

Stewart McElwain, regional co-ordinator for Northland 2011, said the giant goalpost idea was originally part of the region's game and team hosting bid compiled in 2007.

He cautioned it was only one option for promoting Northland to next year's rugby crowds, and depended on costs, sponsorship and approval from the New Zealand Transport Authority.

"We've got a number of balls in the air," Mr McElwain said. So far more than 25 World Cup-related events are set to occur around Northland from August to October 2011.

They range from a Sid Going Country exhibition at the Jack Morgan Museum at Hukerenui to a Hellhole of the Pacific event in Russell and a Pacifica Festival in Kerikeri to welcome the Tonga team.

In other preparations, hundreds of Rugby World Cup flags have been put up along the Kerikeri Bypass and the Waitangi Bridge, next to the fields where Japanese, Canadian and Tongan teams will train before their games at Whangarei's Toll Stadium.

If the concept proceeds NorthTec students would be involved in building the posts, which would likely be erected around Kaiwaka - at a "squeeze point" virtually all northbound traffic had to pass through.

- APN