Dunedin has missed out on the Anzac test but the knockback has not dissuaded the city's stadium officials from chasing rugby league games.
The Kiwis-Kangaroos clash will be held at Eden Park on April 20.
It is not a huge surprise, given Auckland is the home of New Zealand league and Eden Park offers 20,000 more seats than Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Dunedin Venues Management chief executive David Davies always knew it was a long shot but he felt there was value in the stadium showing it was keen.
"We had a couple of conversations with rugby league, and made a proposal to them. They discussed it with us and I thought we had a fair hearing," Davies said yesterday.
"I think we always had our feet on the ground and realised that Auckland's larger capacity and greater population base was always going to make this proposal a stretch for us.
"I think they were pleased to talk to us about it. In doing so, we have put ourselves in the right position for other matches in the future."
The stadium was still "very keen" to host major league matches, Davies said.
He continues to talk to National Rugby League Clubs, a couple of which had been in touch over the Christmas break.
Dunedin has never hosted the Warriors, nor any other NRL club, but Davies is hopeful of hosting a game in the next year or two.
Eden Park last had a league test in late 2010, when the Kiwis-Kangaroos Four Nations game was marred by poor crowd behaviour, including bottle-throwing, that concerned officials a year before the Rugby World Cup.
New Zealand Rugby League chief executive Jim Doyle is not expecting to have the same issues this time around.
He told Newstalk ZB security had improved a lot since that game, and the NZRL was expecting a well-behaved crowd of at least 40,000.
Meanwhile, Dunedin should find out within three or four months whether it has been chosen as a venue for the Fifa world under-20 football championships in 2015.
The smart money is on the indoor stadium playing a key role in the tournament. Apart from the obvious advantage of a roof, it has already hosted two Phoenix games, a pre-season match that attracted 15,000 fans and a full A-League game, on a Wednesday night close to Christmas, that struggled for numbers.
"The next stage is more detailed questions around the proposal we've put to them. That process will start any time now," Davies said.
"I think it's going to be one of those projects you will see come to maturity in the next three months. There will be a fair amount of information coming out of Switzerland."
