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Super Rugby Aotearoa clash delayed following New Zealand's rise in COVID-19 alert levels
By Online Editors
New Zealand Rugby has announced the Crusaders Super Rugby Aotearoa round two match against the Hurricanes will be delayed by one day in a bid to allow fans to attend the match at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch next Sunday.
Originally scheduled for this Saturday, the Crusaders v Hurricanes match will now kick off at 4.35pm on Sunday.
The new date would allow fans to attend the match, provided New Zealand’s current COVID alert levels do not last more than their scheduled seven days.
The Government moved Auckland to level 3 and the rest of New Zealand to level 2 on Sunday morning with the restrictions in place until Saturday, 6 March. Super Rugby Aotearoa matches will be played without crowds at level 2.
NZR Head of Professional Rugby and Performance Chris Lendrum said: “Nobody wants to play in an empty stadium and the opportunity to move the match 24 hours seems like the right thing to do for the Crusaders, their fans, and their players.”
Consideration had also been given to moving the Chiefs' round two Friday night home match against the Highlanders to Sunday afternoon, but on balance it was agreed only one of the two matches could be moved and that Christchurch was the preference.
“We are fortunate our broadcast partner Sky does an incredible job bringing Super Rugby Aotearoa to our fans and the match will provide some welcome Friday night entertainment, hopefully as we near the end of the latest round of COVID restrictions.”
Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge said the change was a great result and another example of rugby working together in difficult times.
“Our fans mean a lot to our club and to our players and if there was an opportunity to have our community there for our first home match of the season then we were always going to take it.
“It’s a credit to the Hurricanes and to Sky for making this happen so quickly and as we’ve seen throughout COVID our rugby whanau have quickly come together for the good of the game.”
Chiefs chief executive Michael Collins said he was disappointed for the club’s loyal fans but understood the reasons for moving just one of the two matches to Sunday.
“It’s a tricky situation, but when it comes to COVID we are all committed to doing the right thing and taking a zero-risk approach to the health and safety of our fans, which means no crowds at level two.
"We looked closely at the possibility of playing on Sunday, but in the end we understood the rationale for only moving one match.
“We’re lucky the match will be live on Sky Sport and I know Chiefs fans will be glued to their televisions, or other devices, to cheer on the team on Friday night.”
- New Zealand Rugby
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Latest Comments
Thats exactly the criticism Ed, that it has already been done for generations. A strong SA, in many respects, should certainly help African rugby develop. You'd have to think they'd acclimatize much better being drawn to a pro SA club than say a European. Hopefully the fact theyve gone private (is that right Graham?) should enable this sort of change.
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
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