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If some All Black is looking for someone to blame for spending Christmas in managed isolation rather than with family this year, they may want to look a little closer to home rather than attribute it to SANZAAR.
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Stevenson says NZ Rugby should take the blame for once, rather than shift it elsewhere. Source: Breakfast
That’s the belief of 1 NEWS Sport host and rugby commentator Scotty Stevenson, who joined TVNZ1’s breakfast this morning to break down yesterday’s events that he could only describe as “an absolute disaster.”
New Zealand Rugby was quick to issue a statement yesterday after the launch of this year’s Australia-based Rugby Championship, saying they were “disappointed” that the matches were announced without their signing.
One test in particular, the All Blacks’ Bledisloe clash with Australia on December 12, has particularly upset NZR as it means players will not be able to be with their families on Christmas Day due to current Covid restrictions. 19 from New Zealand that require anyone to enter the country to spend two weeks in managed isolation.
But Stevenson said none of this would be a problem if NZR worked harder when New Zealand was initially seen as the ideal host for this year’s tournament.
“Our argument here, from the point of view of a rugby fan and from the point of view of NZR, is: ‘We work with the Government, but it’s their fault, it’s their quarantine rules that have decided this, so blame them. “
“But were they right? No. [NZR] He knew what our quarantine situation was like and obviously he didn’t work hard enough to make sure they could convince his partners to go to New Zealand and deal with the situation here. “
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Andy Marinos said the All Blacks are not the only ones making sacrifices at this year’s Rugby Championship. Source: 1 NEWS
Stevenson added that this is not the first time that the New Zealand rugby community has tried to put the blame when the going gets tough for the All Blacks.
“In 2007, we blamed the referee for losing a Rugby World Cup, in 1995 we blamed a waitress, we blamed government quarantine rules for losing the Rugby Championship,” he said.
“When is the NZR’s handling of this association going to be blamed directly?”
Stevenson said NZR got overconfident earlier this year when New Zealand was at alert level 1 and that was to blame for the most recent mistake, which in turn has led to yesterday’s consequences.
“There was arrogance involved. It was a great moment and rugby focused on the triumphalism of being Covid-free, but we are not at the moment.
“I think, unfortunately, NZR was ahead of itself, too far ahead of itself, and this is the result.
“They’ve beaten Australian rugby for many, many years and the fans have too – it’s been quite contagious how we’ve laughed at Australian rugby, and now Australian rugby is laughing.
“You can’t keep blaming other people … You have to negotiate these things and the people in charge of those negotiations are the people who sit around the boardroom table at NZR. They have failed in this case, and there are much more going on behind the scenes than we are led to believe. “
And to make matters worse, Stevenson said that Rugby Australia also has NZR’s recent Super Rugby reform proposal which says they could only have two teams in trans-Tasmania competition to fuel the current situation.
“We underestimate the resentment of being told that,” Stevenson said.
“If the boot had been on the other foot, how would New Zealand have reacted? What would you have expected?
“Those who claim that politics does not exist in SANZAAR have obviously not been following rugby for the last 25 years because politics has always existed in SANZAAR.”
