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Ardie Savea questions 'health and safety' of four-hour Super Rugby Pacific bus trips
Hurricanes captain Ardie Savea has expressed player welfare concerns regarding the four-hour bus trips between Queenstown and Dunedin for the opening rounds of Super Rugby Pacific.
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New Zealand Rugby [NZR] decided earlier this month to relocate its Super Rugby Pacific teams to a centralised hub in Queenstown for the opening three rounds of the competition in a bid to minimise the threat posed by Covid.
With no floodlit grounds in Queenstown, night matches across that time period will be held at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin, despite originally being scheduled to be played at Invercargill’s Rugby Park.
As such, teams scheduled to play at Forysth Barr Stadium – NZR’s preferred venue due to its enclosed roof – will embark on a four-hour bus trip from Queenstown to Dunedin on the day they play, before returning to Queenstown after the match.
All in all, teams will be on the road for eight hours on game day, double the road time they would have endured had evening matches been staged in Invercargill as originally planned.
Speaking to media ahead of his side’s season-opener against the Crusaders in Dunedin on Saturday, Savea aired concerns about NZR’s travel arrangements for its teams.
“It’s not ideal, being on a bus for four hours, then having to play a professional rugby game, against a quality side – you think of the health and safety there,” Savea, who has been named to start at No 8 against the Crusaders, said.
“We’re trusting our trainers to just try and come up with something that will help us prep well. I think all the teams will be in the same situation.
“But we’ve got guys coming back from long-term injuries, and they’re quite nervous sitting on a bus for four hours and then having to play their first game.
“Hopefully with all this Covid stuff we’re able to go back home and play instead of driving four hours to play a match.”
By contrast, Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson was comparatively upbeat about the prospect of a long road-trip with his team ahead of their clash against the Hurricanes.
The Crusaders face the most travel of any of the Kiwi teams as all of their opening three matches are scheduled to be held Dunedin rather than in Queenstown, which will host afternoon fixtures at Wakatipu Rugby Club.
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Robertson told media on Thursday that, given the bus trips are only a short-term measure, the Crusaders are looking to embrace their time on the road together in what they view as a unique situation by New Zealand rugby standards.
“I think the first thing is we just focus on playing footy and the rest works itself out,” Robertson said.
“Things like the bus trip, it’s four hours to get there, but we just try and frame it as it’s unique and it’s new. It’s not going to be for the whole season, probably a couple of times in our life we have to do it so let’s go out and embrace it.
“And they do it in Europe a lot. When I played in France we loved the bus trip and you just got used to it so it’s just how you frame things, your mindset towards it. Like I said, the uniqueness is quite cool, refreshing.”
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In saying that, Robertson sympathised with fans, who will be unable to attend any matches under New Zealand’s nationwide red light Covid setting.
“I think we do feel for our supporters and the crowds because you normally get to Forsyth Barr and it’s humming, the crowd, the Zoo, everything’s pumping. So that’ll be different, but we’re just keen to play.”
Kick-off for the match between the Crusaders and Hurricanes in Dunedin is scheduled for 7:05pm.
Comments on RugbyPass
Can’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
11 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
11 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
81 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
81 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to comments