Rugby bosses discuss options as game goes on 'hold'

Although rugby across the nation has ground to a standstill, Tasman Rugby Union CEO Lyndon Bray says his union and the governing body are looking at “all possibilities” for a speedy resumption of play as soon as alert levels permit.

“[COVID] has certainly thrown a spanner in the works,” said Lyndon. “However, New Zealand Rugby and all the PUs [provincial unions] have had some really good dialogue so far. We have stayed in touch very closely.

“What is clear is that we have a very aligned view on the fact that what is best for all our communities and for us as an industry is that we get rugby back on the field.

“That is the number one priority, if and when we come out of level four and three.

“What that basically means is that we are prepared to look at all possibilities for getting teams on the field … but we are not going to try and imagine what that looks like until we know that we are heading out of lockdown, otherwise we just end up going round and round in circles.

“Then we can start to construct who can play who and over what period of time. The hope would be that those teams who suffer the fate of being under level four for longer could be re-introduced, if possible, depending on time frames.”

The Bunnings NPC season is scheduled to end on October 24. Lyndon says there is some flexibility on how long the season can run, but it is limited.

“We are flexible but we will have to check venue availability, then there are the obvious restraints around summer sport coming into play … then you are moving into pre-season for Super Rugby assembly and players will need a natural break, which is pretty important from a workload and welfare perspective.

“I would hope that we could potentially stretch the season out, but it is up to NZ Rugby to do all the work around the different parties, including our ‘return to play’ protocols, depending how long we remain in lockdown.”

Last season COVID level changes affected the club rugby season, this year it has hit the NPC, the Farah Palmer Cup, Heartland Championship, the final week of the First XV competition and some age-group tournaments.

The first two rounds of the 10-round NPC have been played, the following two weekends postponed at this stage. Five rounds of the Farah Palmer Cup have been played, with the Tasman Mako women having just a single match to play.

There is also one weekend’s play remaining in the Miles Toyota championship. Nelson College are set to host Christ’s College in the cup final, with Marlborough Boys’ College travelling to Christchurch for the Plate final against Christchurch BHS.