Virus curveball unlikely to derail series: NNZ
AUCKLAND: Netball New Zealand is confident the Taini Jamison series between the Silver Ferns and England will go ahead as planned, despite a Covid19 scare.
England Roses head coach Jess Thirlby has tested positive for Covid19 and did not join the team in departing for New Zealand yesterday.
Netball New Zealand head of events and internationals Kate Agnew confirmed all England players and management had undergone tests before departing — all of which came back negative.
It meant they were relatively unconcerned about players having to spend longer than expected in isolation.
‘‘We were able to be very assured that Jess herself had been very removed from the athletes and the management team. They followed some very strict protocols,’’ Agnew said.
‘‘They also worked quite a lot of selfisolation at home between camps so they’ve been very stringent in how they’ve approached their preparation.
‘‘We’re as confident as we can be that as many precautions and mitigations have been put into place as we possibly can to try and avoid any of those situations.’’
The English side is set to finish its 14day isolation less than five days before the first test on October 28. A positive test within the team would cause major disruptions.
Although confident that scenario was very unlikely, Agnew said there were plans in place.
‘‘We’re planning to move forward and deliver this series as we’ve got planned, [but] we are always thinking about the ‘what if’s and we’re prepared for things that might occur,’’ she said.
‘‘We have got quite a few ‘what if’ scenarios, we are comfortable that we could address most of those things very well including things like potentially, if we needed to, make some adjustment to the leadup times before games . . . possibly to even a matchday.’’
The side is expected to arrive in New Zealand on Saturday.
It has been granted a similar training exemption to that of the Wallabies, spending the first three days in isolation before being allowed to train together at a court, provided the team all test negative.
There will also be space at the isolation facility allocated for training purposes. —