Covid-19 cramps Bledisloe

The All Blacks will host Australia in back-to-back Bledisloe Cup tests in New Zealand before travelling to Perth in a schedule squeezed into 15 days by the closure of the transtasman travel bubble.

The original schedule had Australia coming to Auckland for the August 7 first test, before the two teams went to Perth for the second test on August 21 and back to Wellington for the third Cup clash on August 28.

While plans still need to signed off at government level, the Wallabies are now likely to travel to New Zealand on an exemption for games on August 7 and 14, before the squads go to Perth for the remaining match.

Already chasing a Bledisloe Cup drought that dates back to 2002, Wallabies coach Dave Rennie ruled out playing all three tests in New Zealand.

“We’ve talked about being prepared to be flexible and play on August 14 in New Zealand, so that’s one of the likely outcomes, but there’s certainly no option to play all three tests in New Zealand,” Rennie said in a Zoom press conference yesterday.

“It’s unlikely that the Wellington test will be played on the 28th, with us all going to Perth and then having to come back, so we could be playing seventh, 14th and 21st, with the last one in Perth.

“Nothing is confirmed . . . there’s a lot of tickets being sold for Auckland and Perth that’s probably set in concrete and it’s just whether both parties can make the 14th work.

“Our mindset is to win a Bledisloe and we have to win at least one in New Zealand to give us a chance in Perth, so nothing changes really.”

With the New Zealand Government pausing the transtasman travel bubble from next Friday for eight weeks, the Wallabies are set to get an exemption to fly from the Gold Coast to beat the deadline.

Rennie said the team had been in a bubble since the France series and were tested for Covid-19 “twice a week for the last few weeks” and would be tested again on Wednesday before travelling on Friday.