{"id":5817,"date":"2020-04-03T10:50:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T21:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/?p=5817"},"modified":"2020-04-03T10:51:36","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T21:51:36","slug":"the-lockdown-and-the-shape-of-club-rugby-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/2020\/04\/03\/the-lockdown-and-the-shape-of-club-rugby-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"The lockdown and the shape of club rugby this year?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<style>\n\t\t\t#wpls-logo-showcase-slider-1 .wpls-fix-box,\n\t\t\t#wpls-logo-showcase-slider-1 .wpls-fix-box img.wp-post-image{max-height:250px; }\n\t\t<\/style>\n\n\t\t<div class=\"wpls-wrap wpls-logo-showcase-slider-wrp wpls-logo-clearfix wpls-design-1 \" data-conf=\"{&quot;slides_column&quot;:4,&quot;slides_scroll&quot;:1,&quot;dots&quot;:&quot;true&quot;,&quot;arrows&quot;:&quot;true&quot;,&quot;autoplay&quot;:&quot;true&quot;,&quot;autoplay_interval&quot;:3000,&quot;loop&quot;:&quot;true&quot;,&quot;rtl&quot;:&quot;false&quot;,&quot;speed&quot;:800,&quot;center_mode&quot;:&quot;false&quot;,&quot;lazyload&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wpls-logo-showcase logo_showcase wpls-logo-slider  sliderimage_hide_border \" id=\"wpls-logo-showcase-slider-1\" >\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wpls-logo-cnt\">\n\t<div class=\"wpls-fix-box\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.roblawmax.co.nz\/\" target=\"_self\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-post-image\"  src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/rmax24.jpg?fit=220%2C120&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><div class=\"wpls-logo-cnt\">\n\t<div class=\"wpls-fix-box\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.geeksonwheels.co.nz\/locations\/wellington-computer-repair\/\" target=\"_self\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-post-image\"  src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/images.jpg?fit=296%2C170&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><div class=\"wpls-logo-cnt\">\n\t<div class=\"wpls-fix-box\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/thecallcentre.co.nz\/\" target=\"_self\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-post-image\"  src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/TCC-Logo-400x260-1.jpg?fit=400%2C260&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><div class=\"wpls-logo-cnt\">\n\t<div class=\"wpls-fix-box\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.partnersfinance.co.nz\/\" target=\"_self\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-post-image\"  src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/part2.jpg?fit=300%2C195&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n<ul>\n<li>By Scott MacLean<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Normally in this space every week during the season you\u2019ll find my weekly preview. Today would be the third installment, with six of the 14 Premier sides about to run out on their home field for the first time this year and a picture starting to build of the pecking order. The Women\u2019s and Colts competitions would be getting underway as well.<\/p>\n<p>But as we know, these aren\u2019t normal times. All rugby has been on hiatus since NZR hit pause back on March 17, and with a Government-ordered national lockdown in place to try and contain the global Covid-19 virus outbreak the immediate decision as to when rugby can even resume is out of the hands of NZR, much less the humble Wellington Union.<\/p>\n<p>Already the Heartland Championship, Jock Hobbs U19 Tournament, and the representative regional and national 7\u2019s tournaments \u2013 which combined cost NZR about $25m to run each year plus the individual contributions each union makes \u2013 have been cancelled for this cycle. The knock-on effect has already started as well, with the Hurricanes Youth Council also cancelling their provincial representative programme for 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Rugby, in some shape, has been played in the capital for over 150 years dating back to before the formation of the Wellington club in 1870, and organised competition has existed since the union&#8217;s formation in 1879 with Athletic winning the first championship the following year. Bar 1881 when the championship wasn\u2019t played, every season since has seen matches played and a champion crowned despite economic depressions, two World Wars, and \u2013 relevant to today \u2013 the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19 when Poneke were champions in both years.<\/p>\n<p>The most common question I\u2019ve been asked in the past two weeks has been what shape the season will take once the green light is given to resume. Currently the Premier season is programmed for a 19-week period \u2013 10 weeks of the Swindale Shield, 7 for the Jubilee and Hardham round-robins, and two for the playoffs \u2013 ending on the last weekend of July, in order to give space ahead of the representative season headed by the Mitre 10 and Farah Palmer Cups. Some lower grades \u2013 chiefly the Under 85s and Reserve Grade competitions \u2013 finish after this date, and college rugby both starts and finishes later than club, but they also will be affected.<\/p>\n<p>As things stand, the national 4-week lockdown combined with the initial decision to suspend rugby ahead of the opening round means that five weeks have already been wiped off the year. The earliest \u2013 as of today \u2013 that rugby activities could resume is April 23, but with the first Saturday following being Anzac Day and teams having been unable to train as a group during lockdown, some form of a reset preseason would be required. That would push a start date for competition into either the 9<sup>th<\/sup> or 16<sup>th<\/sup> of May, leaving a 12 or 11-week window for club rugby.<\/p>\n<p>Potentially in that time you could run a competition with the Swindale in two pools moving into a seeded knockout format for the Jubilee and Hardham Cups.<\/p>\n<p>However it goes without saying that the longer this goes on, the more that date gets pushed back.<\/p>\n<p>The other unknown is the status at this time of both the Mitre 10 and Farah Palmer Cups, which remain on the schedule pending further decisions from NZR HQ. The national body would obviously prefer to run these given the much-needed TV revenue they bring in, but they too may be in an abbreviated form that could start later. That in turn would extend the window that club rugby could be played, possibly allowing the season to push later into August and even September. Such a possibility could allow for more games at club level, but it all comes back to the point at which the season starts.<\/p>\n<p>Another strong possibility is that club and representative overlap. Such a scenario would obviously affect some clubs more than others, though that is counter-balanced by the fact that the bulk of the first-choice Lions side are already in Super Rugby environments and largely removed from the club game and All Blacks would presumably all be involved in the NPC too. It would though have a far greater impact on the Women\u2019s game so avoiding an overlap there would likely be in the best interests of all parties.<\/p>\n<p>The undeniable truth though is that we really don\u2019t know when rugby will start in 2020, and we must also consider the possibility that the 2020 club season is wiped out entirely.<\/p>\n<p>And the consequences of that are at last as uncharted as were we sit now.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style>\n\t\t\t#wpls-logo-showcase-slider-2 .wpls-fix-box,\n\t\t\t#wpls-logo-showcase-slider-2 .wpls-fix-box img.wp-post-image{max-height:250px; }\n\t\t<\/style>\n\n\t\t<div class=\"wpls-wrap wpls-logo-showcase-slider-wrp wpls-logo-clearfix wpls-design-1 \" data-conf=\"{&quot;slides_column&quot;:4,&quot;slides_scroll&quot;:1,&quot;dots&quot;:&quot;true&quot;,&quot;arrows&quot;:&quot;true&quot;,&quot;autoplay&quot;:&quot;true&quot;,&quot;autoplay_interval&quot;:3000,&quot;loop&quot;:&quot;true&quot;,&quot;rtl&quot;:&quot;false&quot;,&quot;speed&quot;:800,&quot;center_mode&quot;:&quot;false&quot;,&quot;lazyload&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wpls-logo-showcase logo_showcase wpls-logo-slider  sliderimage_hide_border \" id=\"wpls-logo-showcase-slider-2\" >\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wpls-logo-cnt\">\n\t<div class=\"wpls-fix-box\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.roblawmax.co.nz\/\" target=\"_self\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-post-image\"  src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/rmax24.jpg?fit=220%2C120&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><div class=\"wpls-logo-cnt\">\n\t<div class=\"wpls-fix-box\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.geeksonwheels.co.nz\/locations\/wellington-computer-repair\/\" target=\"_self\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-post-image\"  src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/images.jpg?fit=296%2C170&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><div class=\"wpls-logo-cnt\">\n\t<div class=\"wpls-fix-box\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/thecallcentre.co.nz\/\" target=\"_self\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-post-image\"  src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/TCC-Logo-400x260-1.jpg?fit=400%2C260&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><div class=\"wpls-logo-cnt\">\n\t<div class=\"wpls-fix-box\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.partnersfinance.co.nz\/\" target=\"_self\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-post-image\"  src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/part2.jpg?fit=300%2C195&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Scott MacLean Normally in this space every week during the season you\u2019ll find my weekly preview. Today would be the third installment, with six of the 14 Premier sides about to run out on their home field for the first time this year and a picture starting to build of the pecking order. The&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-club-rugby","category-swindale-shield"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Silverware-in-cabinet.jpg?fit=1150%2C451&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbDiON-1vP","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5817"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5820,"href":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817\/revisions\/5820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clubrugby.nz\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}