A rugby ball which burst during Northland’s 27-18 loss to Southland in Whangarei has blown up in a big way.
The ball was couriered to adidas New Zealand for inspection yesterday, with many people left confounded by what caused it to deflate in the manner it did — and a special meeting called at adidas’ headquarters in Germany to discuss the issue.
One possibility is that Northland first-five Dan Hawkins gave it one heck of a nudge prior to the explosion.
“I got all of it,” Hawkins said of his clearance kick.
“It just came off the old size-10 Nike quite nicely, I guess it’s testament to the power of my right boot,” he laughed.
With the anomaly acting as a possible turning point in the match, Tim Boys’ try, which occurred as a result of the chargedown of Hawkins’ kick, may have just been enough to take the wind out of the Taniwha attack.
“A few of the boys were ducking for cover,” Hawkins said. “It was like being in the trenches. When it hit Tim Boys’ hands it made a noise like a shotgun going off.”
Perplexed by the random deflation, Northland ITM Cup team manager and chief ball pumper, Brad Te Haara , said he would be looking to keep the balls at a lower pounds per square inch [psi] for Northland’s remaining home games this season.
“We inflated it to the correct psi, nine to 11 psi it’s meant to be,” Te Haara said.
“We haven’t had any issues in the last two to three years.”
Te Haara said he hadn’t heard any other rugby unions experiencing the same thing.
“It’ll be interesting to see what happened, because you don’t just hold a meeting in Germany for nothing.”
