Pro rugby set to return in only a month as New Zealand leads way

Strict early lockdown helps some Super Rugby matches start in mid-June

New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson. Picture: Dave Rowland/Getty

New Zealand has been held up as an exemplar of how to deal with the Covid-19 global pandemic and reward for the stringent efforts taken continued overnight with confirmed details of professional rugby as early as next month.

It has been in the pipeline but now we know that a domestic form of Super Rugby involving the Auckland Blues, Waikato
Chiefs, Wellington Hurricanes, Canterbury Crusaders and Highlanders – known as Super Rugby Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand) – will start on Saturday 13 June, initially behind closed doors.

Super Rugby is a cross-border tournament which involves teams from New Zealand, Australia, South 
Africa, Argentina and Japan and was suspended “for the foreseeable future” on 20 March.

New Zealand went into lockdown on the same day as the UK on 23 March but, crucially, at a much earlier stage of the virus outbreak and a severe military-backed lockdown, which has since been significantly eased, was vigorously imposed.

New Zealand, who at 4.8 million does have a smaller population than Scotland which is spread thinly across its two main islands, has suffered just 21 deaths and around 1,500 cases, in stark contrast to the calamitous situation in Europe and especially the UK.

The Guinness Pro14 faces a similar problem to Super Rugby in that it is a cross-border competition involving teams from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Italy and South Africa.

Plans are being considered to resume the indefinitely suspended Pro14 season. It could potentially finish in condensed form from 22 August if the coronavirus crisis eases sufficiently.

Discussions are being held over the tournament’s future with games probably staged behind closed doors.

In the meantime, the Kiwis will be up and running soon. The New Zealand government announced last Thursday that professional rugby and netball could resume at “alert level 2”.

The five Super Rugby clubs will face each other home and away over ten weeks, with two matches every weekend at 5.05pm on Saturdays and 3.05pm on Sundays.

In the opening weekend, the Highlanders will play the Chiefs in Dunedin on 13 June, with the Blues playing the Hurricanes in Auckland the following day.

NZR chief executive Mark Robinson said: “The thought of five world-class Kiwi teams battling it out in 20 matches over ten weeks should put a smile back on the faces of many people. I know our players are excited and I’m sure rugby fans will be as well.”

He added: “Medical and operational staff across NZR, the Players’ Association and the clubs have been working together to ensure we have detailed plans in place to protect the health and safety of everyone involved.”

A virtually-held exploratory Pro14 board meeting, meanwhile, has floated a potential final date between 17 and 19 September.

There would be a condensed end to the regular season, with any games that can’t be fulfilled counted as 0-0 draws. As things stood at the time of the indefinite suspension, Edinburgh sat top of Conference B, with Glasgow, whose current coach Dave Rennie leaves the post at the end of June, third in Conference A.

There would be no quarter-finals, going straight to two semi-finals on the first weekend in September with the top two sides in Conference A and Conference B facing each other.

While the Republic of Ireland government has included a return to professional sport in its tentative “roadmap”, that has yet to feature in proposals on the other side of the Irish Sea.

Any return of the Pro14 would have to be fitted around plans for the completion of European club competition, which is stalled at the quarter-final stage. There are plans for quarter-finals, including Edinburgh’s trip to face Bordeaux in the Challenge Cup.

This is complicated by the fact in France all sporting events, including behind closed doors, are banned until at least early September, with their Top 14 season scrapped completely.

Pro 14 bosses say they would like to reach a final decision one way or the other on how to proceed sometime in June, with these the criteria they will be working on:

“Public health authorities cease to prohibit the resumption of sport and group training;

Travel restrictions between our territories are lifted;

No forced isolation or quarantine orders are in force when visiting territories;

Player welfare is safeguarded,including requirement for a suitable pre-recommencement training period, to be established in conjunction with the high-performance personnel at participating unions and teams.”

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