Three games and counting. Moana Pasifika coach Aaron Mauger, along with his squad and management team, will be wondering how they can fit three postponed matches into the rest of their Super Rugby Pacific season as the pandemic makes what was always going to be a difficult first season even harder and threatens the integrity of the whole competition.
The news that “a large number” of Hurricanes players have Covid (reports say up to 20 may be affected), forcing the postponement of Moana Pasifika’s round four match scheduled for Saturday at Sky Stadium will probably not be the last.
Omicron is knocking on the door of most households in New Zealand, and team environments provide an efficient mode of transmission. For Moana Pasifika, who missed the first two Super Rugby rounds due to Covid in their own camp before providing a sterner than expected test for the Crusaders in Dunedin last weekend, this may be the final straw in terms of their slim playoffs hopes.
Shoehorning mid-week matches into a campaign would trouble even a franchise like the standard-setting Crusaders. Forcing them on a side who fielded 11 Super Rugby debutantes last weekend seems like cruel and unusual punishment and, as the clock ticks and the virus spreads, there must be a point in which playing catch-up becomes untenable.
And then what? Shared points for cancelled games? This is not without precedent, with the Crusaders having been involved in two of them; their early season match against the Hurricanes in 2011 was declared a draw due to the earthquakes, as was their match against the Highlanders in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks in 2019.
The competition organisers can only wait and hope. On April 22, Super Rugby Pacific hosts the first of the crossover matches between teams from either side of the Tasman when the Chiefs play the Waratahs in Melbourne.
The Australian teams have as yet not been badly affected by Covid – certainly not to the extent the Kiwi teams have – so shared points arrangements in New Zealand may not sit well in places like Melbourne, where the Rebels are yet to win a match after three rounds.
And what of Covid cases among Kiwi teams in Australia if and when they do travel? The Crusaders, for instance, will spend four weeks across the ditch from late April when they play the Rebels, Waratahs, Western Force and Brumbies. A Covid outbreak within the squad during that time could be devastating for a franchise whose only blemish under Scott Robertson was missing out on last year’s Trans-Tasman competition.
It’s not anyone’s fault, just the new reality we all face, although greater maturity from those Highlanders players who refused to wear masks during their flight from Wellington to Dunedin after their defeat to the Hurricanes at the weekend would be helpful.
A passenger on the flight complained about the behaviour of several players, and it was confirmed by Highlanders chief executive, who told the Otago Daily Times: “We've got very strict Covid protocols and we're trying our best to keep it out of our team, let alone out of our community.
“It's pretty disappointing that anybody wasn't wearing a mask on the plane.
“I was on the plane as well, so I did see a couple of guys that weren't wearing them.
“That's something we've addressed and are addressing.”
Their actions were a slap across the mask for all those trying to do the right thing in New Zealand and it adds insult to injury to what the Hurricanes and Moana Pasifika are facing.
The latter fought until the end against the Crusaders in a performance which deserved more than what may sound like hollow plaudits. They desperately need both competition points and some luck but unfortunately for them it’s difficult to know where they win either now.
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