AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?
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From The Australian today (paywall but see the crux of it below)
Although New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has dismissed the prospect of a trans- Ta$man bubble starting anytime soon, Rugby Australia officials are still pressing ahead with plans that will see the Wallabies and All Blacks play their four scheduled Tests after periods of self-isolation. Ardern said on Monday Australia’s coronavirus community transmission levels, heavily influenced by the new outbreak in Victoria, were too high to contemplate opening the borders. Open borders would have been very much Option A as far as the Bledisloe Cup series was concerned, but officials on both sides of the Ta$man are still proceeding with what they consider an acceptable Option B. That would entail the All Blacks going into a New Zealand Warriors-style quarantine – the Kiwis did their two-week isolation in a bubble at Tamworth ahead of the NRL competition – before the October 10 Test in either Sydney or Perth and the October 17 Test in Brisbane. Almost immediately, the Wallabies would have to fly to NZ to be there for two weeks before playing the All Blacks in the remaining two Tests on November 7 and 14. Unless the pandemic has eased sufficiently for the borders to be open by that time, the Wallabies would locate somewhere where they could access their hotel, training field and gym all within a controlled “clean” environment. -
@KiwiMurph The presumption in Wayne Smith's article is QLD doesn't shut the border.
BTW imagine being stuck in Tamworth for two weeks.
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@antipodean If that happens Aus would look at 2 games in Sydney I imagine.
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@Chris said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
I think there is a lot more Covid activity ramping up in Australia that will be the determining factor, and if New Zealand and Australia want to emilate that sort of UK carnage.
No full travel bubble is necessary. Players should do quarantine, but with government help in the form of regular testing and being given a place to quarantine where they can train. The model is the arrangements that were put in place for the West Indies Cricket team to play in England.
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@Machpants said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
Or the Ozzies play them all over here, only they quarantine (their country fucked up, not ours) and we can have full crowds.
If they can share revenue then that could be an option.
I think RA would rather have two games here (one in Bris, one in Syd perhaps) so at least they can pull in some cash.
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@antipodean said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Bones said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@antipodean yuuuuuck
You DMac fanbois...
Agree. He is making way too many mistakes to be an AB this year.
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@broughie said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Nepia not from what I have seen but each to their own. Remember he is playing for the lowly Chiefs.
Terrible might have been an overstatement on my part, I think he's been busy but not really effective, but I don't think he's up in the same bracket as Sotutu, MMT and Akira. He was good on Saturday though.
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@barbarian said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Machpants said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
Or the Ozzies play them all over here, only they quarantine (their country fucked up, not ours) and we can have full crowds.
If they can share revenue then that could be an option.
I think RA would rather have two games here (one in Bris, one in Syd perhaps) so at least they can pull in some cash.
Two full houses in Parramatta and Suncorp would be a big help.
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@Machpants said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
Or the Ozzies play them all over here, only they quarantine (their country fucked up, not ours) and we can have full crowds.
An option to look at, but Rugby Australia and the Auatralian government may want a game over there. Negotiations involve compromise.
The All Blacks are arguably NZ's best brand. That brand will be massively hit by 18 months of inaction.
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@Tim bit of PR work from NZRU HQ never hurts aye...
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@sparky said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Machpants said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
Or the Ozzies play them all over here, only they quarantine (their country fucked up, not ours) and we can have full crowds.
An option to look at, but Rugby Australia and the Auatralian government may want a game over there. Negotiations involve compromise.
The All Blacks are arguably NZ's best brand. That brand will be massively hit by 18 months of inaction.
Or we see what happens when you make something scarce that people want to see, the value and interest goes up.
See SRA for example, first week a large part of the interest was seeing rugby again and getting out of the house, people stayed because the rugby was good.
Part of what has been causing people to drift away from Rugby was the same games, against the same teams, over and over again.
If the next AB teams oversears was after a two year gap, it would be a sellout, no matter where it was. 100 years building the brand, and sustained success, doesn't disappear in 18months.
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