Saturday's rugby league World Cup final will go ahead as planned, despite the worst storms to hit south-east Queensland for more than 20 years. Tournament organisers consulted with Suncorp Stadium officials on Friday morning to assess the damage caused by the cyclonic tropical winds and rain that have ravaged the area.
Trees have been uprooted, houses smashed and a woman died after being trapped in a car as it was swept away in a torrent.
Storms have raged on and off since Sunday and hailstones the size of golf balls hit Brisbane city centre at the peak of the storm around 7pm on Thursday.
Damage to the Suncorp Stadium has been restricted to broken windows and minor repairs are needed to the roof and, although more storms are forecast for the weekend, World Cup tournament director Colin Love is confident the match, which is a near sell-out between Australia and New Zealand, will be unaffected.
"This is a major venue that is used to accommodating large crowds in all conditions," said Love. "We have every confidence in their procedure."
A total 400mm of rain has fallen on the pitch since Sunday and, although there are contingency plans, stadium manager Paul Sergeant insists there is nothing to unduly worry tournament organisers.
"We are happy with that the ground has held up throughout these last few days," said Sergeant, who has held similar roles at Wembley and the Millennium Stadium.
"Certainly we have plans in place for all contingencies but we don't expect any real problems."
Australia were forced to switch their planned training session from the stadium to Langlands Park on Friday and assistant coach John Cartwright believes the conditions could help underdogs New Zealand.
"The conditions aren't going to be best," he said. "If we get storms like we did last night, it's a big evener.
"The side who handles the conditions the best generally wins the games in those situations.
"It's not necessarily the best side on paper or who prepares best, it's who handles the conditions on the night.
"There is not much point in worrying about it until we turn up and know what we face with.
"If we get a clear night, the grounds are so good, they train pretty well. It's more the humidity."
New Zealand coach Stephen Kearney played down the likely effects of bad weather.
"We're aware there could be a storm," he said. "There were similar conditions last week in terms of the humidity. We have made the lads aware of that.
"All we can do is just make sure we do what we set out to do. Nothing changes from our perspective. I don't think it becomes a lottery.
"We don't really care what the weather tosses up for us on the weekend. Either way, we know what we are up against and we have to play very, very well to get the job done."
Australia: B Slater (Melbourne); J Monaghan (Canberra), G Inglis (Melbourne), I Folau (Melbourne), D Williams (Manly); D Lockyer (Brisbane, capt), J Thurston (North Queensland); P Civoniceva (Penrith), C Smith (Melbourne), TBC, G Stewart (Manly), A Laffranchi (Gold Coast), P Gallen (Cronulla). Replacements: K Hunt (Brisbane), C Fitzgibbon (Sydney Roosters), A Tupou (Sydney Roosters), B Kite (Manly).
New Zealand: Lance Hohaia; Sam Perrett (Sydney Roosters), Simon Mannering, Jerome Ropati, Manu Vatuvei (NZ Warriors); Benji Marshall (Wests Tigers), Nathan Fien; Nathan Cayless (Parramatta, capt), Thomas Leuluai (Wigan), Adam Blair (Melbourne), Daivd Fa'alogo (South Sydney), Bronson Harrison (South Sydney), Jeremy Smith (Melbourne). Replacements: Issac Luke (South Sydney), Greg Eastwood (Brisbane), Sam Rapira (NZ Warriors), Sika Manu (Melbourne)
