Multi-million dollar loss - Three Auckland teams withdraw from NPC

Publish Date
Thursday, 7 October 2021, 1:01PM
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By: Liam Napier

Three Auckland teams have been forced pull out of the NPC after their latest request for a government travel exemption was rejected - a decision that is set to cost the provinces millions on lost player wages.

Earlier this week Auckland, Counties Manukau and North Harbour lodged their third request to base themselves outside the Super City in secure bubbles in order to compete in the remainder of the NPC.

Despite all players being fully vaccinated and agreeing to regular testing that exemption was rejected on Wednesday night, leaving the three teams with no option but to pull the pin on their respective NPC campaigns.

Players and management were informed of the news on Thursday morning.

The three teams last played on the weekend of August 14 and under Auckland's alert level 3 restrictions have only recently been permitted to train in bubbles of 10.

New Zealand Rugby general manager of community rugby Steve Lancaster expressed frustration at the government's decision.

"We believe we had a compelling case to safely move our teams out of the Auckland region without undue risk to the public, but we know government are operating in a difficult and complex world due to Covid-19," Lancaster said.

"We're really disappointed for our Auckland based teams. It is an extremely difficult time with a lot of uncertainty for everyone involved in those teams, but we're grateful the competition can continue for the majority of our teams. We know we aren't the only ones being affected by the current Covid-19 outbreak."

Attention will swiftly turn to the compromised integrity of this year's NPC, and whether promotion-relegation should take place between the Premiership and Championship competitions.

NZR says it will attempt to stand up a separate Super City series for Auckland, North Harbour and Counties-Manukau once they are able to resume playing but with no certainty around timeframes and players only contracted until October 30, time is fast running out.

If the three Auckland teams can't play again this year questions will turn to who foots the bill for player contracts.

The Herald understands Auckland is staring down the barrel of a $1 million loss, while Counties Manukau and North Harbour are believed to be contemplating losses of up to $400,000, which threatens to tip those unions over the edge.

North Harbour chairman Gerard van Tilborg confirmed the financially grim picture.

"It's a decent six-figure negative outcome," van Tilborg said. "We're paying people wages and they can't play. We can't generate revenue. All the gaming venues which we rely on for a lot of our community game are trying hard to help but their venues are shut. Sponsors are very loyal but they don't do it for no return either so that's another difficult part to manage.

"The whole cascading effect is in excess of probably two-and-a-half million across the three Auckland provincial unions. The rubber band is stretched pretty thin and that continues to be the case.

"It's extremely disappointing when our proposals to shift are based around fully vaccinated players managed in a secure fashion with its own medical team. We are very much aware of the need to be careful.

"We were disappointed the first two were turned down but this one we had a lot more optimism based around the fact we understood there was a lot more feedback and consideration given to the proposal.

"The guys are a little bit shellshocked. Frankly the Super City competition isn't inspiring but it does give players the opportunity to continue to push their cases for Super Rugby. We need something that gives our spectators and sponsors the chance to participate in something but it's certainly the sub optimal solution."

If Auckland cannot take the field this year it would rob former Warriors captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck of the chance to begin his transition to rugby union.

Tuivasa-Sheck left the Warriors early to give himself a full NPC season to start his reintegration to union, but may now be forced to jump straight into Super Rugby Pacific with the Blues next year.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission

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