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New Zealand locks in new date for provincial competition following lockdown delay

By Online Editors
Grace Booker. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

The 2020 Farah Palmer Cup (FPC) has been rescheduled to kick off on Saturday, 5 September, New Zealand Rugby (NZR) confirmed today.

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The new draw pushes the competition start-date out two weeks, but still allows for teams to complete a full schedule of matches with the final to be played on the last weekend of October.

NZR’s Head of Women’s Rugby Cate Sexton said it was pleasing to have the updated draw confirmed so teams could adjust preparations, but stressed it was still dependent on Government announcements on Covid-19 levels.

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“A number of options were presented to Provincial Unions and they worked collaboratively and promptly to agree on this outcome.

“This give our teams some certainty in the preparations over the next few weeks and, depending on what happens with Alert Levels, we hope the Auckland-based teams will be able to train together again soon,” said Sexton.

North Harbour, Auckland and Counties Manukau are currently unable to train under Covid-19 Level 3 restrictions, which are in place through to at least 26 August.

NZR continues to work with Provincial Unions on specific Covid-19 protocols and restrictions to ensure the competition can go ahead if some regions are in Level 2.

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The 2020 FPC North Pool will now kick off with Waikato hosting Northland, Counties Manukau and North Harbour doing battle in Pukekohe and Auckland travelling south to Taranaki. The South Pool will kick off the following weekend.

Canterbury, the current FPC champions and holders of the JJ Stewart Trophy, will start their season in Palmerston North against Manawatu.

– New Zealand Rugby

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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