NRL season 2016: Fears for spectator safety almost derailed Roosters v Tigers Michael Chammas
Published: June 5, 2016 - 10:36PM
Sunday afternoon's NRL game at Allianz Stadium was almost called off with fears for the safety of spectators after an advertising board from the upper tier of the grandstand fell into the seating bowl.
The signage fell almost 10 metres from the top deck of stadium grandstand about 90 minutes before kickoff in the Sydney Roosters' 32-18 victory against the Wests Tigers in front of the second smallest crowd in the NRL era.
While gates were open and spectators had entered the venue, most of the patrons were under cover and away from the vicinity of the advertising board given the torrential rain (almost 250mm since Friday night) and strong winds around Sydney.
NRL officials, who had already postponed the prior under 20s game, were concerned about the safety of fans and considered postponing the match with 90km/h wind gusts before kick-off.
However SCG Trust officials gave the green light for the game to continue after a thorough inspection of all stadium signage, with 3622 fans braving the miserable conditions.
"The Trust took down several signage boards that had been damaged or dislodged by the high winds during the weekend storms, inside and outside Allianz Stadium," an SCG Trust official said.
"The decision to remove a number of corflute advertising signs was taken after one fell into the lower seating bowl of the western grandstand when the area was empty ... The Allianz Stadium playing surface received 186mm of rain between Friday evening and Sunday morning. Rain has continued to fall throughout the day today, with a further 45mm recorded already this morning.
"Officials from both clubs, the NRL and the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust inspected the field of play at 2.45pm. Before the inspection, staff had dealt with several areas of concern including a flooded section of the north-west corner and signage damaged by the high winds."
The previous lowest crowd was at Suncorp Stadium in 1999 when 3362 fans turned up to watch North Queensland take on the North Sydney Bears.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson was delighted with the turn out, admitting he didn't think the game would be abandoned given the conditions of a match played in Cronulla last year
"I think the litmus test was the Cronulla-Souths one last year and I think if that one went ahead....anything would go ahead," Robinson said.
"I was actually really impressed with the field. I thought the field held up well. It was in good condition to play. There was 3600 supporters here tonight. I think they should all get a medal for turning up today. It was a really easy day to watch it on television. That is big for us."
The Tigers struggled to adapt to the conditions.
"We didn't play the conditions as well as we would have liked to," Taylor said.
"We planned for it, we knew what it was going to be like out there and we tried hard to control what we did. Our kicking let us down, and unforced errors were the issue for us today ... But I loved the fight in the guys. We stayed in that game a lot longer than we should have."
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...railed-roosters-v-tigers-20160605-gpc16s.html
