Covid headaches: New Zealand Rugby reveals ambitious plans for All Blacks tests in 2020
New Zealand Rugby is confident the All Blacks could play “eight or nine” tests this year, despite the Covid-19 pandemic that has halted short-term plans for the sport.
In a wide-ranging interview on Sky Sport’s The Breakdown, NZ Rugby head of professional rugby Chris Lendrum outlined the many contingency plans the governing body have in place over the future of All Blacks matches, Super Rugby and the sustainability of the game amid the current rugby recession.
When it comes to NZ Rugby’s biggest and most important brand, Lendrum is hopeful there will be plenty of international rugby this year, even in the face of a resurgence of the virus in Auckland which has already caused several cancellations on the sport’s calendar.
“We’re obviously really focused on this year,” he said. “We’ve been pretty open on our desire to get the Wallabies and All Blacks playing during the course of this year – three to four tests potentially; maybe some in Australia and maybe some here or maybe all here.
“And then there’s the work that’s going into the Investec Rugby Championship. I think everyone knows that SANZAAR have invited New Zealand Rugby to host that tournament here. We’re obviously the country amongst those four partners that to date has fared the best through the Covid pandemic.
“So we’re working with the Government at the moment to try to see whether it’s possible to host those three teams in, under what conditions they need to come in, how they might have to quarantine or isolate before they can train as a group and then as a team, and then obviously have to talk to the teams themselves and the players about whether they are happy with all of those conditions that will be around.”
Lendrum says NZ Rugby is still confident the All Blacks will be able to play up to nine games this year, an ambitious target but one that would be invaluable for the organisation. (For comparison, the All Blacks played nine tests in the lead up to last year’s Rugby World Cup in the pre-Covid environment.)
“There’s a huge amount to work through but we remain really positive sitting here today that we could still have eight or nine All Blacks matches in 2020.”
NZ Rugby hopes to get more guidance from the Government about staging All Blacks tests in “the next couple of weeks”.
Meanwhile, the re-emergence of coronavirus cases in the Auckland community and the resulting restrictions in the city and the rest of the country have already forced the cancellation of the sold-out Super Rugby Aotearoa finale between the Crusaders and the Blues at Eden Park, while the first two rounds of the Farah Palmer Cup was also called off.
Lendrum says NZ Rugby have multiple contingency plans on the go around competitions going forward, especially for the future of the Super Rugby competition.
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“We’ve learnt that we’ve got a really viable five-team competition if that’s what we need to do next year. We’ve just come off the back of an absolutely outstanding ten-week competition.
“We know that competition has generated so much good rugby and it’s viable. It’s not our preference – we would ideally like to play a broader transt-Tasman competition – but we just don’t know whether we’ll have the ability to do that.
“At New Zealand Rugby, what we’re trying to do is carry both of those things at the same time and try and plan on a number of fronts. And hopefully time will provide us with a bit more certainty to what option we’ll take.”
Aside from the administrative headaches caused by the pandemic around competitions, NZ Rugby also have plenty of things to work through with players and stakeholders, with negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement with the New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association set to take place this year.
Lendrum was once again “really confident” that NZ Rugby and all parties involved will be able to work together and agree on the best way to move forward.
“I think what we’ve seen this year is that in crisis, it’s brought everybody together,” he said. “The barriers that used to exist within different parties in the rugby community – at least on the professional side – have come down and everyone has been prepared to work together to get a competition up and running, to create more content for our commercial partners, to do things that we haven’t done before.
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“Even innovations to rules during this last competition just happen so easily with so much buy in from everybody … Everybody gets it.”
Ultimately, NZ Rugby have plenty of work to do but remain hopeful of creating a more sustainable future for the sport.
“We’re really motivated to make sure that 2021 is a stepping stone to whatever comes beyond in 2022.
“You can’t just create a team for example, wish a team up and then wish it away a year later because it doesn’t work or it’s not consistent with where you’re going. It’s not fair to the people involved, it’s not fair to our fans or anybody.
“Certainly we’re on a bit of a journey and Covid is going to restrict that journey potentially in 2021 and keep our sights shorter than we might otherwise would like it, but that’s the hand that we’ve all being dealt with in the world and it’s not just rugby suffering from that.
“But again I remain really confident in our ability to progress positively.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments