NZ Rugby chairman reveals the real reason New Zealand lost the Rugby Championship to Australia
Tense negotiations to bring the Rugby Championship to New Zealand were harpooned by the Government’s unwillingness to negotiate — with officials making only one concession in almost three months.
This, and not “Sanzaar politics” as suggested by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, led to Australia being awarded the hosting rights to the tournament, says New Zealand Rugby chairman Brent Impey.
“This came down to the quarantine regulations being too restrictive for the championship,” Impey told the Weekend Herald.
“The situation in New South Wales is that all teams have to undertake the 14 days quarantine period, during which they can train at full capacity while in quarantine.
“They’ll need to have testing during and after the quarantine period, as well as having daily wellness examinations to make sure there are no signs of illness.
“If they do seem ill, they’re isolated and tested, and once a negative result is returned, they can join the group.”
According to Impey, in all the weeks since July, there was just one Government concession over quarantine conditions.
Originally Government officials demanded that throughout the 14 days of lockdown after squads from South Africa, Australia and Argentina arrived in New Zealand, they would never train in groups bigger than 15 players.
After several meetings and phone calls, it was finally agreed that in the last six days of the 14 days in quarantine, the size of the training group could be increased from 15 to 25, Impey revealed.
“The New Zealand situation was that on days one to three there had to be individual isolation. Then, following a negative test, from days four to seven, they could form bubbles of 15 that can train inside the bubble. Then, after a second negative test, they could expand the bubble to 25 from days eight to 14. If there was a negative test, then it was all over.
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“That’s what the decision to go to Australia came down. The difference in quarantine regulations.”
The trickledown effect of losing the Rugby Championship will rob venues throughout the country of the chance to host sold out crowds, while New Zealand’s hospitality businesses can appreciate exactly why federal and state Governments threw financial support behind Australia’s pitch to largely stage the six-week, 12-match tournament in Sydney.
Asked if New Zealand would lose millions from not hosting the Rugby Championship, NZR chief executive Mark Robinson said: “The economic impact is a bit higher than that for a tournament of this kind. There’s a lot of business owners we certainly feel for at the moment.
“It was one way we felt rugby could put a whole lot of smiles on faces and improve the mood of the country but also for bars, cafes, hotels to be full, for people to be travelling into centres to watch these games.
“All that stuff we were hopeful we could see happen but it’s not to be.”
NZR would still receive revenue from ticket sales, Rugby Australia’s interim chief executive Rob Clarke confirmed last night.
“The way Sanzaar has approached this is very much a ‘all hands in the middle’ where all expenses will be pooled and all revenue will be pooled,” Clarke said.
“The profit share will be split among the Sanzaar partners equally. It’s a very fair approach. I think it incentivises everybody to make it more successful.”
– Additional reporting Liam Napier
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