The Newcastle Knights are one of the first Auckland Nines teams here in New Zealand preparing for the inaugural competition which starts this Saturday. Today they trained at Trusts Stadium, which was open to the public.
As the first team who has touched down in New Zealand early hours this morning, the Knights were already in training mode today.
Jeremy Smith, the Māori player of the team is one of the 16 of his side, and he's happy to be home.
It is understandable Smith is excited; his team is one of the top three favourites to win the inaugural Auckland Nines competition.
His team will play against his former side the Sharks in pool play, their first game of the competition.
Over 90,000 spectators are expected to attend the competition.