Moana Pasifika's Super Rugby debut is set to be postponed again, as more than half the squad remain in isolation following a Covid-19 outbreak.
On Monday, coach Aaron Mauger said the amount of cases had grown significantly since the last official count of seven.
"I'm not at liberty to give you the exact number but it was a lot higher than seven," Mauger said.
Fifteen players are still isolating in a Queenstown hotel and have been given a Wednesday deadline to test negative and get back into training.
Moana Pasifika's game with the Chiefs has already been pushed back from Friday to Sunday, but it's understood that won't be enough.
A well-placed source in the team told 1News they won't be pressured into playing if it isn't safe for players, and they expect New Zealand Rugby will put player welfare first and that common sense will prevail.
Mauger said there had also been discussions about using replacement players from other teams.
"We could probably do that with maybe three, four max. Anything past that then it's not really a Moana Pasifika team," Mauger said.
"When it starts to get to those levels then we'll probably take that off the table and do what's right for Moana Pasifika and our players as well."
They're willing to endure two weeks of postponements, after waiting 26 years to get this historic team across the line.
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