The Blues have passed the requisite health checks and will spend their Super Rugby Aotearoa bye week in Cambridge as they await further developments in the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown.
In a planned response to the situation the country was thrown into on Saturday night when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the latest Covid restrictions (level 3 lockdown for Auckland, level 2 for the rest of the country), the franchise has decided not to return to its home city for its inactive week.
The Blues opened Super Rugby Aotearoa with a 31-16 victory over the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday night, then remained in the capital to undertake full Covid-19 testing. Once results came back, they relocated to Cambridge, south of Hamilton, where they will be based at the Podium Lodge facility which provides access to appropriate training facilities and meets nutrition requirements.
A Blues spokesperson confirmed that all members of the squad had tested negative for Covid-19 and had now relocated to Cambridge.
Blues chief executive Andrew Hore told media on Sunday that the decision to remain out of Auckland while lockdown was in place was part of a well thought through plan which allowed the greatest flexibility moving forward.
“You can overkill it compared to the general population, but we’ll be taking precautions to keep ourselves in a bit of a bubble as much as possible,” he said.
The Blues are scheduled to return to Super Rugby action on Sunday, March 14, when they host the Highlanders for their Eden Park home opener.
However Hore confirmed on Sunday they have plans in place to potentially move the fixture should Auckland remain under lockdown restrictions. The alert levels will be reviewed on Friday.
There is a good chance Auckland could be back to level 1 by the time of the Highlanders game, but Hore said it was important to cover all eventualities, including allowing full training to take place.
The Blues have already suffered a disruption to their pre-season when Auckland went into a short level-3 shutdown in February.
“If Auckland stays in level 3 and the rest of the country is level 2, we’ll stay out, find a venue that we can play behind closed doors, because everyone has to play behind closed doors at level 2,” said Hore.
“If Auckland is at level 2 and the rest of the country is level 1, we’ll try to find a venue that we can play at, but you’ve got to be respectful of the other franchises.
“That said, there are parts of our region that aren’t in the Auckland boundaries, so we’ve got to exhaust all of those options.”
Further complicating a potential change in venue for the Blues is that Northland’s Semenoff Stadium – the most appropriate ground outside of the Auckland region – is having work done ahead of the women’s World Cup later this year.
The Blues boss also mentioned there was a possibility of “flipping” the match, so they played it in Dunedin, but that would be heavily dependent on the Highlanders being prepared to undertake a change at late notice.
The Blues intend to proceed with bye week as planned and are scheduled to resume full training on Sunday.
