Rugby: Wallabies coach Dave Rennie criticizes New Zealand government quarantine rules for Bledisloe Cup

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has criticized the quarantine measures planned by the New Zealand government for next month’s Bledisloe Cup tryouts.

New Zealand has been confirmed to host two Bledisloe Cup events after losing Rugby Championship host rights due to restrictive quarantine protocols.

According to New Zealand Rugby President Brent Impey, New Zealand’s quarantine protocols restrict teams to individual isolation for the first three days, before they are allowed to form bubbles of 15 for training days four through seven. After a second negative test, they can expand the bubble from 25 from day eight to 14. “If there was a positive test, then it will be all over,” Impey said.

Those protocols are not acceptable to Rennie, who came to rule out his team so that he could not play the first test of the Bledisloe Cup on October 10, which was initially raised as a potential date.

the Herald understands that the tests are scheduled for October 17 and 24, but Rennie still wants changes to the quarantine restrictions.

“Hopefully they are still in negotiation. [NZ Rugby chief executive] Mark Robinson said that when New Zealand missed the Rugby Championship it was due to quarantine protocols which were restrictive and made it difficult for teams to want to prepare, “Rennie said after naming a team of 44 Wallabies that includes 16 players. No limits for the Bledisloe Cup and the Rugby Championship.

“New Zealand Rugby is looking forward to getting us on a plane the day after the Super Rugby final and having two weeks in quarantine where we can’t prepare as a team and then play a test seven days later.

“Under those quarantine arrangements, I can assure you that we will not play a test in New Zealand that weekend. [of October 10]. “

If the first Bledisloe test is played on October 17, that would allow the Wallabies two weeks of full post-quarantine training if they left after the Super Rugby Australia final on September 19 and spent two weeks in quarantine.

However, although Rennie said that October 17 “could be” a plausible date for the first test, he is unhappy that he cannot train as a full squad while in quarantine.

“There are many people much worse than us. We will take care of that, but my job is to fight for the best possible conditions to prepare and perform a quality performance. The current protocols do not allow us to do that.

“We would like to create a better environment for it. We have to go into a bubble anyway, so both sides go into a bubble for two weeks, unrestricted training so the preparation is identical.”

“For me, trying to create a culture, spending time on team building, getting our structures and clarity in team details to be very important, but they can’t do that as a group for the first two weeks. Have some young people show up. to some of our other Wallabies for two weeks at our camp It is unacceptable, we will not play a test under those conditions.

“We know that Super Rugby Aotearoa was very high quality, very high intensity, so we have to make sure that in our preparation we can train with that kind of intensity, hence the reason we are not enthusiastic about the quarantine protocols. “.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern insisted on Friday that the decision to award the Rugby Championship to Australia was not due to the New Zealand government’s quarantine restrictions, but to “Sanzaar policy.”

Both Robinson and Sanzaar CEO Andy Marinos have denied this claim.