Coronavirus: Rugby Australia eyeing trans-Tasman competition and Bledisloe Cup series

Rugby Australia (RA) is discussing the possibility of playing a makeshift trans-Tasman competition and Bledisloe Cup series later this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Super Rugby season was suspended last month due to COVID-19 and plans for a domestic competition as part of a way to continue the campaign were put on hold.

Australia and New Zealand, however, have managed to halt the spread of coronavirus and travel conditions could eventually be eased.

After agreeing a pay cut with players on Monday, RA is eyeing a provincial competition and a 2020 Bledisloe Cup series between the Wallabies and All Blacks.

“Yeah it’s certainly one of the models that we’ve got worked through at the moment and we remain in consistent discussions with New Zealand because obviously that makes a lot of sense,” RA chief executive Raelene Castle told reporters via a conference call on Tuesday.

.@RugbyAU, the four Vodafone #SuperRugby Australian teams and @RugbyPlayersAus have today reached agreement on an interim pay deal for players as the code continues to navigate the devastating effects of the COVID-19 global health and economic crisis.https://t.co/7STBXa5sHh

— Rugby Australia (@RugbyAU) April 20, 2020

“The indications we’re getting from government agencies is that the sequence of opening up is likely to be domestic first, then into maybe trans-Tasman and maybe Pacific, and then international.

“So we have a number of different scenarios that we are [looking at] and that’s certainly one that we are in conversations with New Zealand about.”

Castle added: “If the governments don’t let us travel and the governments don’t open international borders to allow teams to come in to this environment, we might not have any choice but to review what the structures look like [in terms of] what we deliver at the back-end of this year and then potentially what we could deliver into ’21.

“So it won’t be driven by what SANZAAR want to do, it will be driven by what governments allow and which countries open up their borders at what times. And certainly all of the indications that we are getting from the Australian and New Zealand governments is that they are very proud of the fact that they’ve managed to control this very well and limited the damage and the loss of life, and they’re not willing to open that up again quickly to risk that they go backwards again.

“So that’s an overlay that we as a SANZAAR community have to be dealing with and those are conversations that are actively happening.”

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