Rugby World Cup pool game venues will be announced tomorrow, with the southern bid still hoping for six games to come south of the Waitaki River.
The announcement in Auckland tomorrow afternoon comes after 18 months of hard work from the Southern Lobby Group, which wants to host six games, including an All Black test, in the south.
It wants three matches in Dunedin, one being an All Black test, two in Invercargill and one in Queenstown.
The southern bid was up against 10 other regional bids: Northland, Auckland, Hamilton, Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu, Wellington, Tasman and Canterbury.
The Auckland bid includes three venues, while the Bay of Plenty bid has two venues. Bids had to be in with organisers by the end of October last year.
There are 40 pool games available.
Rugby New Zealand 2011 staff and Rugby World Cup staff have spent the past few months travelling around New Zealand inspecting venues.
Organisers have always said it is a tournament for 4 million people, and this may work in favour of the southern group, as rugby in the south is an integral part of New Zealand rugby.
The organisers were keen to go to Queenstown, although the venue's lack of lights may count against it.
With Christchurch and Wellington having bagged two quarterfinals each, and the semifinals, final and third-fourth play-off all being played in Auckland, the organisers may want to spread pool games around the country to avoid saturation in the three main centres.
The lobby group did not include the new Awatea St stadium in its bid, as there was too much uncertainty over whether it would be built in time.
Southern Lobby Group chairman Ian Farrant said a tremendous amount of work had gone into the bid and he felt the bid had been well received by organisers.
Organisers had been pleased the south had a combined bid as that was what they had wanted.
He said the organisers had kept the successful venues a secret. He was hoping for the best but admitted he had no idea how successful the southern bid would be.
