SINGAPORE — Even though it has been touted as the opener to the Sports Hub’s 2016 rugby season, it appears that tomorrow’s Super Rugby match between the Sunwolves and Cheetahs has yet to fire up fans’ excitement here.

TODAY understands that ticket sales for the rugby fixture — the first sports event to be held at the 55,000-seater National Stadium this year — have been sluggish, with reportedly less than 6,000 tickets sold so far.

While Sports Hub chief operating officer Oon Jin Teik did not reveal details of ticket sales, he stressed yesterday that it is unrealistic to expect rugby events to attract the same crowds as football.

“We have to be realistic in that rugby is not football. Rugby is a sport that the national sports association (the Singapore Rugby Union) is still developing,” he explained.

“For the sport of rugby … you don’t get full stadiums in the world, but the numbers will grow over the years.

“Our focus is we must keep growing the sport, we must reach out to stakeholders … sponsors, corporates, associations.

“This season of rugby that we’re developing is part and parcel of the masterplan (for rugby) and we will grow it over the five years.”

Aside from the Sunwolves’ three matches at the National Stadium, the Sports Hub will also host the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in April in what has been billed as the stadium’s rugby season.

The fixture between Japan’s Sunwolves and Cheetahs (South Africa) will also see the Singapore national team of 1997 and 1998 reuniting at the stadium to play the Japanese Dragons in tomorrow’s curtain raiser.

Clustering the rugby events together is also part of the Sports Hub’s strategy to build a robust sports calendar and win fans over.

The S$1.33 billion project has been hit by a number of problems since its opening in June 2014. These include issues with the stadium’s grass pitch and resignations within its senior management team, as well as event organisers threatening to pull out due to high costs and other factors.

Calling the challenges “a little hump”, Oon said the consortium is determined to make it work.

“As you move into new areas, new policies, new projects, new management, there will be a little hump here and there,” he said.

“We are professionals in this area, we are sports-passionate people who just want this thing to work.”

Oon is also confident that the venue — which last hosted the Madonna concert on Feb 28 — will be in tip-top shape for the Super Rugby event.

“This is a special weekend for us as it’s the start of a five-year journey,” he said.

“We now have, in the backyard of Singapore, the Champions League equivalent of rugby, world-class club teams followed by HSBC rugby sevens. We have the best of both worlds in terms of rugby clubs and nations.”