Super Rugby to have an early start
four straight titles on February 1, when they will take their home game against the Waratahs to Nelson’s Trafalgar Park.
As was the case in 2018, the Hurricanes will kick-start their campaign in South Africa, where they play the Stormers (Cape Town). They will visit this year’s runners-up – the Jaguares – in Buenos Aires the following week.
Highlanders fans will have to wait until week two to see their team due to a first-round bye. The southerners will host the Sharks in their first game.
Next year will be the last season Japan’s Sunwolves feature, given the competition will be reduced to 14 teams and return to a round-robin format in 2021.
It means there will next year be no changes to the playoff format, which awards the winners of the New Zealand, Australian and South African conference home quarterfinals.
The next best team – from any conference – will also host a home quarterfinal, while the teams ranked fifth-eighth will also make the playoffs.
From 2021, when Kiwi teams will play just four New Zealand derbies a season, only the top six teams will make the playoffs. Brook Macdonald lay motionless for five agonising hours as he waited for a helicopter to arrive.
New Zealand’s top downhill rider sustained a serious spinal injury when he crashed during his first practice run at the world mountainbike championships in Quebec, Canada, last month.
Macdonald was dreaming of a podium placing, having qualified as the third fastest rider.
‘‘I felt really good all weekend and going into race day I felt like there was a potential of a podium,’’ he said.
But winning a medal was the furthest thing from his mind when he tumbled down a drop after hitting an exposed root with his front wheel 24 hours before raceday.
‘‘It kind of just kicked me and I went over the bars onto my back and I rolled off to the side and couldn’t feel anything. I was pretty scared and worried then. That started my day off spending five hours on the hill not knowing what was going on, semiparalysed.’’
Macdonald fractured his T12 and L1 vertebrae.
He required urgent medical assistance but it took five long hours for a helicopter to arrive on the scene and one hour before he received any pain relief.
‘‘In that situation you can’t really feel anything and it is pretty scary so I just wanted to be assessed and find out what was going on,’’ he said.
Incredibly, the Hawke’s Bay rider was given the option of evacuating Mont Sainte Anne on the back of a quad bike, which he immediately refused.
Considering this was a major international event organised by the UCI, Macdonald said the lack of care was beyond belief.
‘‘It was pretty bad man. I was like ‘just get me off this hill, I need a helicopter’ but they tried to take me down on a four wheeler on one of their four wheeled drive tracks. I said ‘what are you doing? There’s no way. I have a back injury and you’re trying to take me down a hill on the back of a trailer on a quad?’
‘‘I never had any painkillers or pain relief for an hour after. I was in complete agony. I said ‘whatever you do get me a helicopter and get me off this hill as soon as possible’. They said ‘yep, we’ve ordered a helicopter and it’s coming in 15 minutes’ but they kept telling me different stories like it’d be here in 20 minutes, it’ll be here in 30 minutes, it hasn’t left yet.’’
Despite the setback, Macdonald was in surprisingly good spirits when he spoke to Stuff from the hospital bed, where he has remained since his crash.
Although the accident left him with potentially life-changing injuries, Macdonald said ‘‘it is what it is’’ and was just looking forward to returning home to New Zealand to begin his rehabilitation.