The opening round of Super Rugby Pacific may have to be postponed, with members of the Moana Pasifika squad bracing for positive Covid-19 tests.
Moana Pasifika's final pre-season match is likely to be cancelled this weekend after a member of its training squad, who was with the team before it headed to Queenstown, was deemed a close contact.
Moana Pasifika got to play the Chiefs in a pre-season match last weekend but are unlikely to take the field this weekend against the Highlanders. Photo: Photosport
A Blues player has also been deemed a close contact and is isolating at the team's Queenstown hotel.
Players from both teams have so far returned negative results after rapid antigen tests but New Zealand Rugby's Chris Lendrum said they're waiting on more definitive PCR tests.
"The PCR testing is going to tell us if there are positive cases in the environment but it's highly unlikely that everybody is positive or everybody is negative.. so the next step is who are the close contacts?
Pelenato Sakalia CEO of Moana Pasifika Photo: Photosport
"(That) will be determined by the DHB and that in turn will identify how many players inside the bubble can continue to train and how many have to isolate and what that means," said Lendrum.
It's highly likely that there will be positive tests.
"Looking back at the transition period for Moana Pasifika, it's absolutely possible, so we are preparing for the worst and anything else is a bonus."
The situation is a major setback for Super Rugby's newest team Moana Pasifika, with the players only having been together since early January.
"The pre-season game was really important for them this weekend...we've all mentally prepared for the disruptions and the uncertainties but nothing quite prepares you for when you need to wait for the formal notification from a district health board as to the status of your team," said chief executive Pelenato Sakalia.
Lendrum said the time leading up to the start of the competition was always going to be the most difficult Covid-19 wise.
"We are still dealing with the transition of people into the environment and contacts that were broader than inside the (rugby) bubble," he said.
"So we may well have a disrupted weekend this weekend... and then we will have to look downstream to the test results to see what they mean for round one."
-RNZ
