All Blacks won't have to spend Christmas in quarantine

The All Blacks won't have to spend Christmas in quarantine after it was decided to shift their last game of the Rugby Championship to a week before the tournament had been scheduled to start.

The Wallabies and All Blacks were due to meet on 12 December, but under current New Zealand regulations they have to complete two weeks in quarantine that would take in Christmas.

There was talk of a potential boycott by New Zealand players if a solution wasn't found.

Hosts Rugby Australia and organisers SANZAAR have revealed a revised schedule for the 2020 Rugby Championship after bowing to pressure from the New Zealand Rugby, with the competition now to kick off a week earlier.

Australia's clash with New Zealand that was scheduled for 12 December will be played on 31 October after the NZRU objected to the original date as it meant their players would have to spend Christmas in quarantine due to the country's strict Covid-19 travel restrictions.

The initial fixture list saw the competition start on 7 November.

The row over the scheduling had soured relations between New Zealand and Australia, RU chairperson Hamish McLennan admitted this week.

The teams are scheduled to play two Bledisloe Cup tests before the start of the competition, the first on Sunday followed by another clash on 18 October.

All matches involving Argentina and world champions South Africa will remain as scheduled, and the pair will now close out the competition on 12 December at Newcastle's McDonald Jones Stadium. The game was originally scheduled for Sydney.

South African Rugby have still yet to officially confirm their participation though as worries over a lack of preparation time and player welfare persist, with the country's domestic competition only set to start this weekend.

"This year has been a year of continued adjustment where the SANZAAR partners have had to compromise on a number of levels," SANZAAR CEO Andy Marinos admitted in a statement yesterday.

Australia was chosen to host the entire Southern Hemisphere championship this year. Argentina have already arrived in the country to start their preparations this week.

Process has been 'messy' - Rob Nichol

The New Zealand Players' Association boss Rob Nichol told Morning Report the whole schedule process has been untidy.

"From a player's perspective we said 'at the end of the day they've got a job to do, they've got to focus on the job. There's a few solutions on the table, administration go away work it out, sort it out amongst yourselves and come back and tell us what the answer is,' and that's ultimately what they ended up doing and they've come back with something that works for everyone which ironically is not too far off what the original draw was.

"It's just messy but it's a year of Covid and obviously a lot of things change. So, we're actually incredibly fortunate and we know the administration on both sides of the Tasman have worked incredibly hard to get this tournament off the ground."

Nichol said he still had faith in SANZAAR despite the 'messiness'.

"Yes we do (have faith)... the whole issue is around what the future of SANZAAR is, so it's not really SANZAAR's decision, it's coming back on the national unions - New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina.

"Argentina's had to take its players... into the Northern Hemisphere, South Africa is widely publicised are looking very seriously at taking their teams and playing in a Northern Hemisphere competition. So then it comes back on Australia and New Zealand to look and say 'okay well we can't play the traditional Super Rugby what is it we're going to play'.

"So it's almost morphing out of SANZAAR into Australia and New Zealand and what we want to see is the Pacific Islands embraced and brought into that mix and work out what it is we're going to do in that trans-Tasman-Pasifika space and maybe moving up into Japan moving forward, because the players want are so keen to be playing, frankly, the Australian teams and the Pasifika teams, that's what they want to do at a Super Rugby level and that's what we're pushing for."

Revised Rugby Championship schedule:

Oct. 31, Sydney

Australia v New Zealand

Nov. 7, Brisbane

Argentina v South Africa

Australia v New Zealand

Nov. 14, Sydney

New Zealand v Argentina

South Africa v Australia

Nov. 21, Sydney

New Zealand v South Africa

Australia v Argentina

Nov. 28, Newcastle

Argentina v Australia

South Africa v New Zealand

Dec. 5, Sydney

Argentina v New Zealand

Australia v South Africa

Dec. 12, Newcastle

South Africa v Argentina

-Reuters