{"id":113607,"date":"2021-08-08T10:50:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-08T10:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=113607"},"modified":"2021-08-08T12:58:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-08T12:58:51","slug":"surprise-location-for-nrl-grand-final-backed-by-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=113607","title":{"rendered":"Surprise location for NRL grand final backed by legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby league legend Ruan Sims<\/a> has endorsed New Zealand as a "wonderful" location for the NRL<\/a> grand final as the league's bosses work toward finding a venue amid the challenges of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Sydney's Stadium Australia, Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium and Melbourne's AAMI Park are the leading contenders for the showpiece event, set to be held on Sunday, October 3.<\/p>\n

But New Zealand has emerged as an option<\/a> in the wake of the Wallabies' clash with the All Blacks at Eden Park<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

A 47,000-strong crowd packed into the stands as the All Blacks<\/a> beat the Wallabies<\/a> in the first match of the Bledisloe Cup \u2013 and the atmosphere was electric.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As does rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns<\/a>, Sims believes the NRL grand final will be held at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But the Jillaroos, Blues and NRLW icon said it would be great to see New Zealand receive the honour.<\/p>\n

"I think it would be a wonderful way to pay back the New Zealand team and fans," Sims said on Wide World of Sports' The Final Whistle<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"And we saw the whole reason this popped up was because they had the Bledisloe over there and they got a good crowd.<\/p>\n

"I'm assuming they'd be able to get capacity over there (if New Zealand held the NRL grand final).<\/p>\n

"I agree with Joey, though; I think it will be in Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium. And … I hope by then full capacity is on the cards.<\/p>\n

"But that would be a great spectacle (to have the grand final in New Zealand)."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Auckland's Eden Park, which has a capacity of 50,000, and Mt Smart Stadium, which can fit 30,000, are the country's chief contenders for the grand final.<\/p>\n

A decider across the Tasman would repay the support of the many New Zealand-based rugby league fans, who have been deprived of NRL games during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The Warriors<\/a> haven't played a match in New Zealand since 2019.<\/p>\n

The Kiwi club had been due to take a game to Mt Smart Stadium next Sunday, where they'd play the Bulldogs<\/a> in a homecoming, but the resurgence of COVID-19 in Australia's eastern states<\/a> ruined that plan.<\/p>\n

"An opportunity to play (the grand final (under an exemption in New Zealand, in front of a full house, is an option if we can't play elsewhere in Australia," NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo<\/a> told the Sydney Morning Herald.<\/p>\n

"Saturday night's match (between the Wallabies and All Blacks) means we have a precedent in terms of getting an exemption from the New Zealand government. Those exemptions are based on economic impact and the grand final would qualify for that."<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rugby league legend Ruan Sims has endorsed New Zealand as a "wonderful" location for the NRL grand final as the league's bosses work toward finding […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113607"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113607"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113609,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113607\/revisions\/113609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}