Finding Home Base

USA Eagles coach Eddie O’Sullivan and Manager Tristan Lewis at the Wellington training venue that has historical ties for the United States of America. Photo: Justine Hall, Wellington City Council

USA Eagles rugby team management learned of wartime links to New Zealand’s capital city during a facility inspection in the lead up to Rugby World Cup 2011.

The team will spend five nights in Wellington around their pool match against the Australian Wallabies at Wellington Regional Stadium on September 23, 2011.

The visit to Wellington this Wednesday (June 30) continued a long and interesting tradition of sporting links with the Newtown area of New Zealand’s capital. Strong ties between the United States and New Zealand were forged during World War II.

Thousands of American troops were stationed throughout the Wellington region before and during their bloody campaigns in the Pacific. Camps and facilities were set up around Wellington City - including Newtown, where the Eagles will train.

Eagles players will train near the site of Newtown Park's former basketball hall, which was built by American GIs during WWII to address a lack of suitable venues for their beloved game. The hall was built with a sprung wooden floor, previously unheard of in New Zealand at the time. Sadly, the hall was destroyed by fire in 1999.

Just down the road lies the site of the former Athletic Park, now a retirement village, which was the scene of many great wartime sporting moments. Among them was a thrilling - if slightly baffling for spectators - game of baseball in 1942. Around 25,000 locals watched US Marine Corps troops play baseball.

Sport provided a welcome diversion for the wartime visitors and, judging by the Athletic Park baseball crowd, for locals too. A plaque in Frank Kitts Park, near Wellington’s downtown waterfront, commemorates the Marines' stay in the city and reads: "To the People of New Zealand - If You ever Need a Friend You Have One".

That friendship endures through sporting links today and Acting Wellington Mayor Ian McKinnon says the city will be celebrating the special relationship during RWC 2011.