Let’s get flexible with Super schedule

Super Rugby bosses want the government to show a degree of flexibility that would allow the transTasman tournament to proceed in its current form, or close to it, after Covid-19 again plunged rugby’s best-laid plans into doubt.

New Zealand’s border reopening plan, and the subsequent arrival of the concerning Omicron variant in Australia, meant rugby executives on both sides of the Tasman had to quickly turn to contingency planning last week.

Highlanders chief executive

Roger Clark and Crusaders boss Colin Mansbridge both told Stuff yesterday those plans were ‘‘a work in progress’’, but there was a united determination for the new Super Rugby Pacific competition to go ahead without ripping up the draw that was released only two weeks ago.

‘‘There’s been international competitions happening around the world, and successfully managing that process, in last 12 months,’’ Clark said. ‘‘So, we’ve got to see if we can somehow come up with a solution with government to allow us to manage that.

‘‘We know the track record is health first and there’s not a lot of flexibility, and sport is only one segment of the challenges that they [the government] face. But our job is to come up with those solutions, which we know there are because there’s been good case models around the world where this has been successful.’’

In an ever-changing environment, the three options currently open to Super Rugby Pacific organisers appear to be:

■ presenting a successful case to the New Zealand government that would allow teams to travel between Aotearoa and Australia and train between weekly fixtures

■ ‘front-loading’ the start of the Super Rugby Pacific with derby games

■ holding the entire competition in the same country, with Australia mentioned as a possibility in Australian reports last week.

Clark said moving all the derbies to the start of the year was, at present, the likeliest option, but ‘‘wasn’t ideal’’, while Mansbridge was also keen to maintain the current Super Rugby Pacific draw, arguing that moving professional sports teams between New Zealand and Australia was less risky than domestic travel in the government’s new ‘traffic light’ system.

‘‘We think there is case to go back to the [Sport] Minister that you’ve got the Breakers, Phoenix, Warriors, and Super Rugby,’’ Mansbridge said.

‘‘Most of those teams have learnt enough, and there’s enough support and infrastructure around them, and international experience to be able to manage bubbles incoming and outgoing.

‘‘If you think about it from a risk management perspective, we’ve allowed the traffic light system to emerge, there probably is going to be the ability to manage the risk almost better in a professional sporting environment, than allowing internal travel to occur.’’ At present, fully vaccinated New Zealand citizens and residents can travel from Australia from January 17, but have to self-isolate for seven days. Foreign nationals can do likewise from April 30, but those conditions make sporting trans-Tasman sports competitions impossible.

NZ Rugby is working on the proposal to push ahead with Super Rugby Pacific in its current format, but it isn’t alone, with Sport NZ chief executive Raelene Castle also in dialogue with Sport Minister Grant Robertson.

‘‘The initial word was no exceptions, but let’s see,’’ Mansbridge said.

Significantly, Clark also said a third edition of Super Rugby Aotearoa was ‘‘not on the agenda’’.

A decision on the competition for 2022 isn’t likely to be imminent, particularly as any proposal for the government to consider would need to be watertight.

Mansbridge said the current draw could be rejigged without too much disruption but said the government needed to start adapting to the new Covid-19 environment.

‘‘Our preference would be to develop a system now that acknowledges the existence of Covid in the community for the next few decades, and what can we do now to address that?’’ he said.