Holland happy for Hurricanes to sit out final match of season
Hurricanes coach Jason Holland would have no problem with players electing to sit out of this weekend’s Super Rugby Aotearoa match against the Highlanders.
Both teams are set to square off in Dunedin on Saturday night, but the game going ahead remains unclear due to the latest outbreak of community transmission of Covid-19.
Currently, the country sits at alert Level 2 which would allow the game to go ahead, albeit likely without a crowd, while Auckland is at Level 3, which would see the Blues v Crusaders clash cancelled.
Holland says players have not spoken out yet about being reluctant to play, but if they do, he completely understands.
“If people had worries then we understand the person behind the decision. At the moment there’s been nothing like [that] and we’ve got really good trust in firstly our CEO and our board, and then the Government and New Zealand Rugby to make really good decisions. We’ve had no boys who don’t want to play for those reasons.”
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New Zealand Rugby is yet to make a decision on this weekend’s action, which also sees the Blues hosting the Crusaders at a sold-out Eden Park on Sunday. That match is set to be cancelled unless Auckland moves down to Level 2, where crowd restrictions will apply.
Holland says there is still a lot of “grey” around the situation, but hopes to receive more information later today.
“We could be flying on the day, we could be going tomorrow.
“It’s definitely strange, I suppose the last six or seven months have taught us that we got to be positive around everything we do and just be ready to do everything as well as we possibly can when we get the opportunity.
“Everyone in New Zealand’s had to put up with strange things and we just got to get on with it as best we can.”
First-five Jackson Garden-Bachop, who has been named to start in the 10 jersey, described the situation as “peculiar”.
“This stuff with Covid is another hurdle to get over. Obviously going through lockdown … it was always a chance it could come back, but the boys are handling it well.”
Holland says in and amongst the uncertainty, the team has managed to stay focused on the task that remains, for the meantime, at hand following a couple of training sessions.
“For the last three or four games we’ve had a real focus on ourselves and wanting to play really good footy, and I think by and large we’ve done that. While the Crusaders have done the job we still have a bit of pride around what we put out.
“There’s still second up for grabs.”
"If I’m [training] inhibited, I’ve probably got a pretty terrible chance of performing or getting up to their level."@AllBlacks World Cup bolter Luke Jacobson spoke to @TomVinicombe about the highs and lows of 2019. #SuperRugbyAotearoa #AllBlackshttps://t.co/dxe3GZe4P9
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 12, 2020
Should the match go ahead, it will signal a rest for co-captain TJ Perenara, who has played every minute of every game in the competition so far.
Perenara’s exclusion sees Jamie Booth get the nod at starting halfback, with youngster Jonathan Taumateine due to come off the bench.
In the other change to the starting XV, Billy Proctor comes in for Kobus Van Wyk and joins Peter Umaga-Jensen in the midfield. Vince Aso moves to the right wing.
For the Highlanders, they have made just the one alteration to the side that went down to the Crusaders. Flanker Tom Florence comes onto the bench in place of Jesse Parete.
It will be a special occasion for co-captains Aaron Smith and Ash Dixon, who bring up 150 and 100 Super Rugby caps respectively.
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 …
27 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!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 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.
27 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.
27 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