From plan A to plan F

A fortnight ago, while speculation swirled around which All Blacks may or may not be keen on a nine-week stint away from family for the Rugby Championship, Dane Coles was forthright in his position.

‘‘Sign me up, I’ve got three kids, I will be on that first plane out of here,’’ jested the 33-yearold of his involvement in the tournament.

However, with the goalposts now shifted – the All Blacks were under the impression their last test of the tournament would be played on December 5 rather than 12 – an extended stay in Australia that also includes quarantine on return during Christmas now certainly has the veteran hooker having to reconsider his plans.

‘‘I got a bit of crap for that from my son’s schoolteacher,’’ he said yesterday, during the All

Blacks’ camp in Hamilton, of his cheeky initial line about getting out of dad duty for a while.

‘‘There was a deal that was done and obviously Sanzaar and New Zealand Rugby have got a little thing to worry about. It’s not ideal, we don’t want to spend Christmas in quarantine.’’

Coles said coach Ian Foster had addressed the squad on Monday night about the scheduling situation, and what sort of solutions could be on the table to try and get their six tests across the ditch played in time for them to return to their homes before December 25.

‘‘There’s so many scenarios going round. And we’ve talked about that, like what’s Plan A, Plan B to Plan . . . F.

‘‘And then we just said, ‘let’s park it up and not worry about it’ because we’ve got a test match to prepare for [the Bledisloe Cup opener in Wellington on October 11].

‘‘If we worry about all that stuff, it’ll just trip us up. It’ll take our attention away from where we need to be.’’

Asked if he would indeed be prepared to quarantine on Christmas if it came down to it, though, Coles wasn’t prepared to commit.

‘‘I’m not going to talk to my missus until I know what the actual plan is, like there’s no point worrying about stuff like that, for me.’’

What’s also up in the air is if Coles will make his return to the field this weekend.

After several niggles had limited his game time during Super Rugby Aotearoa, another twinge to his troublesome calf during the Hurricanes’ final-round match against the Highlanders in Dunedin on August 15 has kept Coles out of action.

The 69-test veteran had been targeting Wellington’s roundfour Mitre 10 Cup clash against Canterbury in Christchurch this Saturday night for his return, though his involvement won’t be confirmed until game-eve.

‘‘That might be the plan still,’’ he said.

‘‘I’m fully training and ready to go. It’ll be a big week this week, so I’ll just get to Friday and make that decision.’’

Foster said there would likely be one other player released for provincial duty – with uncapped lock Quinten Strange to front for Tasman’s trip to North Harbour on Sunday after recovering from his shoulder injury a little quicker than anticipated.

‘‘There’s so many scenarios going round.’’

Dane Coles