Decision on Landers game tomorrow
THE Highlanders will wait until tomorrow night to make a decision on their scheduled game against the Hurricanes in Alexandra on Friday.
With the country outside Auckland operating at Level 2, which limits gatherings to 100, any game in Alexandra would have to be played without fans if the situation remains unchanged.
Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark said he was working through protocols with New Zealand Rugby and the Hurricanes into what may happen on Friday.
Clark said having or not having a crowd was only one thing to consider.
‘‘Under Level 2 there are a whole lot of other things we are going to have to consider. Until we find out what is going on on Wednesday night it is pretty hard to say what Friday night is going to look like,’’ he said yesterday.
He said 1500 to 1600 tickets had been sold for the Alexandra match, including all corporate tickets, which he said was pleasing as the bulk of the crowd bought tickets on the day.
If the country stayed at Level 2, under NZR rules teams would have to fly in and out on the day.
Clark said the move to Level 2 was throwing up plenty of logistical issues but that was no different from most businesses around the country at this time.
‘‘The good thing this time is we have got a series of plans to roll out at the different levels.’’
He said the players trained in small groups yesterday. Although it was not ideal, the players were used to it.
If the levels stayed the same for the rest of the week consideration may be given to delaying the start of the competition.
The Highlanders are set to host the Crusaders on February 26 in the first game of Super Rugby Aotearoa.
The competition is set to climax with a final on May 8 and the plan was to then have a competition against Australian teams. But with Covid outbreaks in both countries, any transtasman bubble seems a while away.
Clark said not much thought had been given to the transtasman matches, as the focus was on Super Rugby Aotearoa.
He said if it was not possible to travel to Australia then they would look to have a third round of Super Rugby Aotearoa. He was confident the public had an appetite for a third round of matches.
But it was simply too early to speculate on what would happen.
Each franchise needed to have six home games at a minimum to be sustainable.
The Blues announced late yesterday their preseason match against the Crusaders at Eden Park this Saturday has been cancelled.
Dermody said the All Blacks were allowed to play 40 minutes this week. Liam Squire was not far away from being ready but was unlikely to play.
Dermody felt in the first half at Temuka, the Highlanders had impressive intensity, the team had nailed its attack, and the defence was strong. The Highlanders led 260 at halftime before going down 2826.