White Ferns get business flights
This one is seemingly it for the Chiefs.
Win in Cape Town against the Stormers on Sunday morning (NZ time) and they perhaps keep their Super Rugby title credentials intact; lose, and they will be staring down the barrel of a three-game losing skid which will have them fall well off the pace in the Kiwi conference.
After being upset, out-passioned and out-smarted in the 23-19 slump to the Jaguares in Rotorua last Friday, the Chiefs now somehow have to rediscover winning ways in what shapes as a defining 80 minutes for them at DHL Newlands, on a difficult two-game South Africa soujourn.
Next weekend’s match against the Sharks in Durban almost looms as a write-off, considering the team’s All Blacks will all be forced to fly home and attend a national camp instead.
Already without co-captain Sam Cane (abdominal strain) and fellow flanker Lachlan Boshier (appendicitis) for the tour after they were late scratchings last weekend, and still with All Blacks props Kane Hames (concussion) and Nepo Laulala (broken arm) sidelined, the Chiefs will then be further debilitated by the loss of Nathan Harris, Brodie Retallick, Damian McKenzie and Anton Lienert-Brown, against a Sharks team which just last weekend pumped the Highlanders 38-12.
On return from Africa, before the June international window comes home games against the Waratahs and Crusaders, but McKenzie and Lienert-Brown will still be having to sit out one more match each on their All Blacks stand-down requirements. Then when the competition resumes it’s two local derbies in their final three games, with the Highlanders in Suva and the Brumbies and Hurricanes in Hamilton to round out the regular season.
So, in all, with the Chiefs sitting fourth in the NZ conference, it’s really now or never.
They are just one point back from the Highlanders but are nine behind the Hurricanes and 11 off the Crusaders, the latter of which has played an extra game.
At this rate they would still be comfortable playoff qualifiers, but as has been shown year on year, if you don’t win the conference you may as well kiss goodbye the chance of lifting the trophy, such is the
Super Rugby, Rd 13 Stormers v Chiefs DHL Newlands, Cape Town Sunday, 1.05am (NZ time)
SP Marais, Dillyn Leyds, JJ Engelbrecht, Damian de Allende, Raymond Rhule, Damian Willemse, Dewaldt Duvenage, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Kobus van Dyk, Siya Kolisi (c), Pieter-Steph du Toit, Chris van Zyl, Wilco Louw, Ramone Samuels, Steven Kitshoff. Scarra Ntubeni, JC Janse van Rensburg, Frans Malherbe, Cobus Wiese, Nizaam Carr, Paul de Wet, Jean-Luc du Plessis, Seabelo Senatla.
Charlie Ngatai (c), Toni Pulu, Anton Lienert-Brown, Johnny Fa’auli, Solomon Alaimalo, Damian McKenzie, Brad Weber, Tyler Ardron, Liam Messam, Luke Jacobson, Michael Allardice, Brodie Retallick, Angus Ta’avao, Nathan Harris, Karl Tu’inukuafe. Liam 0Polwart, Sam Prattley, Jeff Thwaites, Jesse Parete, Pita Gus Sowakula, Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, Marty McKenzie, Shaun Stevenson. When the White Ferns board their flight to Ireland at the end of the month, they’ll be doing so in style.
New Zealand Cricket have upgraded their travel policies for their women’s cricketers, meaning any long haul travel will now be in business class.
The Black Caps have flown business class to overseas matches for years, but as recently as November, when they played Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, the White Ferns flew economy.
In the past couple of months, New Zealand Cricket’s travel policy has changed as part of wider improvements following Sarah Beaman’s damning Women and Cricket report in November 2016.
‘‘After the Women and Cricket report came out, we’ve been attempting to improve engagement with women’s cricketers,’’ New Zealand Cricket spokesman Richard Boock said.
‘‘[The travel policy changed] in the past few months. It’s in line with our increased investment in women’s cricket.’’
Beaman’s independent report had found 90 per cent of cricket clubs didn’t have women’s only teams, and more than half of clubs didn’t offer women’s cricket at all.
The organisation was urged to improve the number of women in governance positions, and increase the number of women in coaching and umpiring.
Beaman told in November that New Zealand Cricket had ‘‘responded incredibly well’’ in the year following the report.
But that month, the White Ferns had quietly travelled to Dubai in the economy cabin, something their male counterparts wouldn’t have had to do.
While the White Ferns’ current Memorandum of Understanding doesn’t require the team to fly business class, it’s an improvement New Zealand Cricket have now committed to.
The news has come as a surprise to the White Ferns players.
All rounder Amy Satterthwaite found out about the upgraded flights when contacted by and said it was ‘‘fantastic’’ news for the players.
Amy Satterthwaite
‘‘From an athlete point of view, it’s the high performance side of things,’’ Satterthwaite said.
‘‘Flying business will really help when we get to the other side. We’ve got some tall timber in the team and it will be very beneficial for them to have that extra room.’’
Satterthwaite was one of the White Ferns players who flew business to the Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2017, at the expense of the International Cricket Council, and said the benefits are huge.
‘‘You get off the plane feeling a bit fresher. Nobody likes jetlag, but you feel that bit better getting off and it helps your recovery, getting ready for that first game.’’
The ICC only sent the women’s teams to the World Cup in business class because of an uproar over their treatment of women’s teams during the 2016 Twenty20 World Cup.
For that tournament, men’s sides were sent business class while women were in economy. After New Zealand Cricket and other nations complained, the ICC vowed to provide business class flights for both sexes to ICC tournaments.
Satterthwaite said the improvements in the treatment of women in cricket over the past 12 months have been huge.
‘‘Since that report came out, it brought to the fore the issues that were in the women’s game, and they aren’t being ignored anymore.
‘‘New Zealand Cricket have been really proactive which has been fantastic.’’
NZC spokeman Boock said there were ‘‘a lot of things we had to work on after the Women and Cricket report in late 2016, authored by Sarah Beaman’’.
‘‘It’s not something you can do all at once, but we’ve been slowly working to improve every aspect of the women’s game.
‘‘It’s an important step. It can make a big difference to performance.’’
New Zealand Cricket employees also fly business class for flights more than five hours long
The White Ferns’ tour of Ireland and the United Kingdom runs from June 6 until July 13. They play Ireland in a Twenty20 and three ODIs, before playing South Africa and England in a Twenty20 tri-series, and England in three ODIs.