Canterbury Crusaders will host the Sharks in a historic, one-off match at the hallowed home of rugby, Twickenham in London, on Sunday March 27.

A ripple effect from the tragic Christchurch earthquake of February 22 is that the Canterbury Crusaders will host the Sharks in a historic, one-off match at the hallowed home of rugby, Twickenham in London, on Sunday March 27.

England’s Rugby Football Union yesterday agreed to permitting a match which is likely to be the first – and last (natural disasters permitting!) – official match involving SANZAR (the alliance between South Africa, New Zealand and Australia) teams outside the Southern Hemisphere.

The cash-strapped Crusaders asked the RFU and the Sharks to agree to the match because of the financial losses they are experiencing because they cannot stage Super Rugby games at their quake-damaged stadium (32 000 capacity) and have been forced to use smaller satellite venues (around 10 000 capacity) in their region, and are further hit by the loss of revenue from suites and other match-day revenue.

Twickenham has a capacity of 82 000 and with tickets being charged in pounds, everybody will be a winner (the Sharks will get a healthy share of the gate).

The RFU initially turned down the request because of a clash on the requested Saturday with a local Premiership match at Twickenham’s adjacent Stoop ground between Harlequins and Gloucester, but the Crusaders and Sharks then agreed to move their game to the Sunday.

The RFU said in a statement “”We know we’ve got 900 000 South Africans in the London metropolitan area, 600 000 Australians and a quarter of a million Kiwis, so we’re hoping they’ll come out for it.

“It’s fantastic news that we were able to find a date that would enable us to host the game as the centrepiece of a weekend of fundraising for the people of Christchurch.”

The Sharks are in New Zealand and will play the Chiefs in Hamilton on Friday before embarking on the epic 24-hour journey to London. They will have a day of recovery on the Crusaders, who play the Highlanders in Dunedin on Saturday.

Sharks CEO, Brian van Zyl, had this to say about the move to Twickenham: “It is great to finally have confirmation of the date and venue for our match against the Crusaders as things have been a uncertain to date. In addition, we are extremely pleased to be part of a match that is about so much more than competitive rugby. We believe that it is critical for us to unite around this cause in support of our New Zealand counterparts. We urge all South Africans in London to join us at Twickenham for the match.”

by Mike Greenaway www.iol.co.za