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Highlanders match against Rebels could be relocated to Sydney amid COVID-19 uncertainty
Pack your bags for Queenstown or Sydney.
That’s the message to Highlanders players from the franchise’s chief executive Roger Clark, who remains confident his side will still play the Rebels this weekend despite Melbourne’s latest COVID-19 outbreak.
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The quarantine-free travel bubble between Victoria and New Zealand was paused for 72 hours on Tuesday following an outbreak of the virus in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
Travel restrictions are scheduled to be lifted at 7:59pm on Friday NZT, but six new COVID-19 cases were recorded on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases from the recent outbreak to 15.
The growing number of cases could see international travel in and out of the state paused beyond its Friday deadline or force Melbourne into a lockdown.
Such measures have the potential to wreak havoc with Super Rugby Trans-Tasman, particularly for the Highlanders and Melbourne Rebels, who are scheduled to play each other at the Queenstown Events Centre on Sunday.
However, Clark has moved to alleviate concerns the fixture won’t go ahead as planned as he revealed the Rebels have relocated from their Melbourne headquarters to Sydney, where they plan to fly to Queenstown from on Friday.
“The Rebels will be based in Sydney from later on today, and so they’ll be ready once the 72-hour timeframe falls off on Friday night,” Clark told media on Wednesday.
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“They’ll be ready to fly to Queenstown on Saturday morning as originally planned, just from out of Sydney rather than Melbourne.”
That should allay fears that Queenstown will miss out on its first Super Rugby match since 2010, but it also hasn’t stopped Clark from devising a contingency plan to relocate the fixture to Sydney if further complications arise over the coming days.
It wouldn’t be the first time a Super Rugby match has been held in a neutral venue as the Sunwolves played the Brumbies and Crusaders in Wollongong and Brisbane, respectively, during the initial outbreak of the virus in Japan last March.
Another option would be to cancel the fixture entirely, something which occurred last year when the Blues and Crusaders had their final Super Rugby Aotearoa match canned amid heightened COVID-19 alert levels.
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However, Clark is confident the match will go ahead, either in Queenstown or Sydney, as he said the “integrity” of Super Rugby Trans-Tasman depends on the event taking place.
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“At the end of the day, we’ve got to play the game for the integrity of the competition,” he said.
“At this stage, we’re doing everything we can because we’ve put a lot of work into this game and we’ve got a lot of support at every level in New Zealand to play this game and to launch Queenstown as a tourism mecca again for the ski season.
“We’re doing everything we possibly can to make sure this game happens in Queenstown at 2:35 on Sunday.”
Clark added that tickets have continued to sell even as doubts linger over whether the Rebels will make it to New Zealand.
“The support and the ticket sales have been absolutely unbelievable up until about 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon, and then they, as you can imagine, slowed down.
“We did sell about 25 tickets in the first hour this morning, so there’s some people that are still confident it’s going to happen.
“Obviously anyone that buys a ticket, if we don’t play the game, we will refund anyway, but, at the moment, ticket sales are great, the community has been absolutely fantastic.
“There’s a lot of goodwill across the country – and in Australia, for that matter – for this game to go ahead, so we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that, form a health perspective, everything goes well.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Lets compare apples with apples. Lyon sent weak team the week before, but nobody raised an eyebrow. Give the South African teams a few years to build their depth, then you will be moaning that the teams are too strong.
41 Go to commentsDid footballs agents also perform the scout role at some time? I’m surprised more high profile players haven’t taken up the occupation, great way to remain in the game and use all that experience without really requiring a lot of specific expertise?
1 Go to commentsSuper rugby is struggling but that has little to do with sabbaticals. 1. Too many teams from Aust and NZ - should be 3 and 4 respectively, add in 2 from Japan, 1 possibly 2 from Argentina. 2. Inconsistent and poor refereeing, admittedly not restricted to Super rugby. Only one team was reffed at the breakdown in Reds v H’Landers match. Scrum penalty awarded in Canes v Drua when No 8 had the ball in the open with little defence nearby - ideal opportunity to play advantage. Coming back to Reds match - same scrum situation but ref played advantage - Landers made 10 yards and were penalised at the breakdown when the ref should have returned to scrum penalty. 3. Marketing is weak and losing ground to AFL and NRL. Playing 2 days compared with 4. 4. Scheduling is unattractive to family attendance. Have any franchises heard of Sundays 2pm?
10 Go to commentsAbsolutely..all they need is a chance in yhe playoffs and I bet all the other teams will be nervous…THEY KNOW HOW TO WIN IM THE PLAYOFFS..
2 Go to commentsI really hope he comes back and helps out with some coaching.
1 Go to commentsI think we are all just hoping that the Olympic 7s doesn’t suffer the same sad fate as the last RWC with the officials ruining the spectacle.
1 Go to commentsPersonally, I’ve lost the will to even be bothered about the RFU, the structure, the participants. It’s all a sham. I now simply enjoy getting a group of friends together to go and watch a few games a year in different locations (including Europe, the championship, etc). I feel extremely sorry for the real fans of these clubs who are constantly ignored by the RFU and other administrators. I feel especially sorry for the fans of clubs in the Championship who have had considerable central funding stripped away and are then expected to just take whatever the RFU put to them. Its all a sham, especially if the failed clubs are allowed to return.
9 Go to commentsI’m guessing Carl Hayman would have preferred to have stayed in NZ with benefit of hindsight. Up north there is the expectation to play twice as many games with far less ‘player management’ protocols that Paul is now criticising. Less playing through concussions means longer, healthier, careers. Carter used as the eg here by Paul, his sabbatical allowed him to play until age 37. OK its not an exact science but there is far more expectations on players who sign for Top 14 or Engl Prem clubs to get value for the huge salaries. NZR get alot wrong but keeping their best players in NZ rugby is not one of them. SA clubs are virtually devoid of their top players now, no thanks. They cant threaten the big teams in the Champions Cup, the squads have little depth. Cant see Canes/Chiefs struggling. Super has been great this year, fantastic high skill matches. Drua a fantastic addition and Jaguares will add another quality team eventually. Aus teams performing strongly and no doubt will benefit with the incentive of a Lions tour and a home RWC. Let Jordie enjoy his time with Leinster, it will allow the opportunity for another player to emerge at Canes in his absence.
10 Go to commentsLove that man, his way to despise angry little men is so funny ! 😂
4 Go to comments“South African franchises would be powerhouses if we had all our overseas based players back in situ. We would have the same unbeatable aura the Toulouses, Leinsters or Saracens of this world have had over the last decade or so.” Proof that Jake white does not understand the economics of the game in SA. Players earning abroad are not going to simply come back and represent the bulls. But they might if they have a springbok contract.
22 Go to commentsA lot of fans just joined in for the fun of it! We all admire O'Gara and what he has done for La Rochelle
4 Go to commentsThe RFU will find a way to mess this up as usual. My bet is there will be no promotion into the the Premiership, only relegation into National League One. Hopefully they won’t parachute failed clubs into the league at the expense of clubs who have battled for promotion.
9 Go to commentsWell that’s the contracts for RG and Jordie bought and paid for. Now, what are the chances we can persuade Antoine to hop over with all the extra dosh we’ll have from living at the Aviva & Croke next season…??? 🤑🤑🤑
35 Go to commentsWow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
35 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
14 Go to commentsIf someone like Leo Cullen was in O’Gara’s place I don’t hear Boo-ing. It’s not just that La Rochelle has hurt Leinster and O’Gara is their Irish boss. It’s the needle that he brings and the pantomime activity before the game around pretending that Munster were supporting LaRochelle just because O’Gara is from Cork. That’s dividing Irish provinces just to get an advantage for his French Team. He can F*ck right off with that. BOOOOO! (but not while someone is lying injured)
4 Go to commentsDid the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
5 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
6 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
22 Go to comments