News

Canterbury rugby fans have snapped up all available tickets for next month's Steinlager Series Test match against Ireland - the first international Test in the region for two years.

The last available tickets for the 16 June All Blacks v Ireland fixture went on public sale this morning, and sold out within hours.

Most of the 17,500 seats available at the redeveloped AMI Stadium at Addington were sold in the pre-public sale offer that went to the local rugby community - those involved in community level rugby or with Crusaders and Canterbury RFU season memberships.

New Zealand Rugby Union General Manager Professional Rugby Neil Sorensen welcomed the quick sell-out as a sign people were ready for All Blacks Test rugby to return to the region.

"This is an outstanding response from Canterbury.  After the heartache and pain of 2011 and the disappointment of losing Rugby World Cup fixtures - this has been an amazing response to ticket sales."

Canterbury RFU Chief Executive Hamish Riach said that the traditional pre-public sale offer that went to their rugby community had proven very popular.

"We could have sold every ticket to those on our databases, but we're delighted that we were able to make a limited number of tickets available to the public this morning.

"A sell-out is a great response from our region, and we can't wait to see the All Blacks and Ireland in Christchurch in just a few weeks.  The new AMI Stadium has been a fantastic home for the Crusaders this season.  I think the All Blacks Test match is also going to be something very special for us," he said.

Although effectively sold-out, the NZRU is still investigating options for additional seats with a larger temporary stand at the West end of the new AMI Stadium.

"People are working very hard to make sure we explore all options to increase capacity at this stadium, but there are challenges around the cost of erecting a larger temporary stand that is earthquake code compliant."

"We hope to confirm the West stand situation this week," he said.

The sell-out in Christchurch means that All Blacks fans wanting to see Steve Hansen's new squad square off against Ireland, will have to grab a ticket for either of the remaining Steinlager Series Test matches in Auckland (9 June) or Hamilton (23 June).
 
This year's series is being played during the Investec Super Rugby three-week break in June.

Tickets for the Investec Rugby Championship - which will see the All Blacks pitted against Australia, South Africa and new competition entrants, Argentina - go on sale in early July.