Page 40 - All Blacks v Lions - First Test

12 YEARS IN THE MAKING
Fans have travelled from far and wide to eperience the occasion, and have not been disappointed
Dan Tatham is a Match Manager for the Series (one of three along
with Jo Gilpin and Craig Morton, who have split the matches between them), and he says the exercise was more like running 10 Test matches over the six weeks of the tour. “It’s a huge step up from the Steinlager Series Tests or the Investec Rugby Championship Tests,” Tatham says.
For Tatham, preparing for the tour started several years ago. The Lions management made ve or six site visits once the venues for the tour had been arranged, and he says they were good to work with. That was helped by a long-standing friendship he has had with his Lions opposite number through several tours and the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Tatham also went to Australia during the Lions 2013 tour to work with his Australian equivalent to get a handle
of how the Lions’ machine worked. Whereas touring teams come to
New Zealand with around 45-46 people for regular Tests, the Lions had more like 90 people travelling, which involved two 50-seater buses and a couple of mini-vans to be organised.
Additionally, a lot of liaison work and meetings were held with each of the venues and the Super Rugby Clubs, and also with local authorities. Large checklists from previous occasions were useful as key plans were made in the weeks ahead of games and right down to the key days just before, and on, the day of the game.
“Around two or three days before the game we have meetings to check off a
“We have a 100-page event document from which we have to tick things off.”
detailed planning sheet, and with a 100-page event document we tick things off. But there has to be crisis management for things like the lights going out at Westpac Stadium at half-time in a Test in 2013, or for earthquakes, and we step through a couple of serious plans just to make sure,” Tatham explains.
A key meeting the day before the game is Captain’s Runs day, when the
two sides get two hours each to familiarise themselves with the venue.
A broadcasters’ meeting is also held with the television rights holders both in New Zealand and overseas, but which also involves radio teams, of which there have been four – one in New Zealand and three overseas – during the tour. In the evening, a dress rehearsal of all the pre-game, half-time and post-match elements is performed.
Then, on match day, the organising team generally arrives at the stadium around lunch time and a whole programme of checks and balances is worked through in the countdown to kick-off – even down to 30-second checks for some aspects.
Once the game is completed, debriefs are held in the venue control room after about 30 minutes for immediate issues. Then, about after an hour later, a wider debrie ng involving all participants in the exercise is held before sign-off is achieved.
The ground is then all cleaned
up, materials that need to be moved to the next ground are loaded onto trucks, and the whole process starts over again. And if it has all gone well, rugby fans at the ground will be none the wiser – and that’s just the way the organisers like it.
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