Crisis mode nothing new for rugby
Foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks, whites-only policies and earthquakes have disrupted rugby. And the sport has endured. Richard Knowler reports.
Super Rugby is halfway down the gurgler, thanks to coronavirus. As to whether the competition can resume, or the domestic tests against Wales and Scotland in July can be played, is anyone’s guess.
For now it’s a waiting game. New Zealanders can only sit tight and obey the lockdown rules.
History shows this isn’t the first time weather, diseases, protests and politics have pushed rugby to one side. And it’s endured.
1. ALL BLACKS v ITALY IN TOYOTA
Typhoon Hagibis left a trail of destruction in Japan last October, taking lives, destroying property and disrupting the Rugby World Cup.
World Rugby had little option but to cancel several games in the final round, including the All Blacks’ match against Italy in Toyota.
While Italy were desperate to play in an attempt to secure an unlikely win to qualify for the playoffs, the All Blacks had no such concerns; they were content to use the extra time to prepare for their quarterfinal against Ireland the following weekend.
Italy were shipped home, but not before captain Sergio Parisse blewup and labelled World Rugby’s decision ‘‘ridiculous’’, saying it should have relocated the fixture or altered the match day.
He had every reason to be angry. ‘‘It is ridiculous there is no plan B, because it isn’t news that typhoons hit Japan,’’ he fumed.
2. ALL BLACKS TO SOUTH AFRICA IN 1967 AND 1985
The All Blacks’ tour to the Republic was cancelled in 1967 because of a ban on mixed-race teams.
To its shame the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, as it was then known, had agreed to send a racially selected team to South Africa in 1960. Non-white players were excluded.
A proposed tour seven years later was cancelled. Prime Minister Keith Holyoake’s statement that all New Zealanders ‘‘are one people’’
wasn’t ignored and the All Blacks never left for South Africa.
Instead they toured Britain and were also supposed to visit Ireland (more on that later).
In 1970 the All Blacks went to South Africa with a mixed-race squad, having been granted permission to pick ‘‘honorary whites’’ such as Bryan Williams and Sid Going by the South African government.
In 1985 the NZRU wanted to send a mixed-race team to South Africa but that tour was called off when Auckland lawyers Patrick Finnegan and Phillip Recordon took the national sports body to court.
An interim injunction in favour of the plaintiffs was granted by a high court judge and the tour was scrapped.
3. THE SLAM THAT COULDN’T BE GRAND
The foot-and-mouth disease outbreak prevented the All Blacks from crossing the Irish Sea in 1967.
That wiped out the New Zealanders’ hopes of securing a grand slam (it was left to the 1978
team to do this for the first time) by beating Ireland in Dublin, having earlier vanquished England, Wales and Scotland on their home tracks.
It was also reported the squad had to burn all their gear before leaving London to minimise any risk of them carrying the disease back home and compromising our agricultural industry.
4. NO RUGBY AT THE PARK
New Zealanders protesting against the Springboks’ tour of New Zealand in 1981 secured a moral victory when the tour match against Waikato at Rugby Park in Hamilton was called off.
The stands were packed with fans, and players from both teams inside the respective changing sheds were ready to play.
There were a few issues that needed to be sorted before a game could commence; several hundred pitch invaders were on the pitch, and the cops couldn’t get them to budge.
Result? Game cancelled, folks. Go to your local and cool off over a jug and a pie.
Nelson Mandela, later to become the president of South Africa, said that when he learned of the news inside his prison cell on Robben Island it was ‘‘as if the sun had come out’’.
The game between the Springboks and South Canterbury in Timaru, to be played four days after the first test, was cancelled in advance.
5. HURRICANES v CRUSADERS IN 2011
The devastating earthquake in Christchurch on February 22, 2011 caused 185 deaths and injured several thousand people.
Sport was the furthest thing from most people’s minds as they came to terms with the tragedy, and the Super Rugby fixture
between the Hurricanes and Crusaders in Wellington was cancelled.
Competition points were shared. The Crusaders, who were forced to play outside of Christchurch for the remainder of the season because Lancaster Park was damaged beyond repair, qualified for the final but were beaten by the Reds at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
6. HIGHLANDERS v CRUSADERS IN 2019
The massacres by a lone gunman in Christchurch on March 15 last year sent shockwaves through New Zealand and around the world.
The Highlanders were scheduled to host the Crusaders at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin the following day but it was called off as a way of showing respect to the victims of the terrorist attacks at the two mosques.
Each team was awarded two competition points.
It was also the beginning of the end of the Crusaders’ logo of a knight brandishing a sword, but the name remains.