waiopehu oldboy
George Smith (75)
Clan will be without Josh Dickson, suspended for three weeks for a high shot on Saturday. I'm expecting ScoBar to get four for his effort on Friday due to having a previous RC for a similar offence.
The more I think about it, the more I am annoyed about the fact we are playing the first trans tasman games as part of this 'Super Round'.
No matter the results, things will likely be muddied for another week. If the Reds and Brumbies get beaten there will be the whole situation of 'well it was a weird tournament thing, lets see how we play them back at our own home'. If the Aussie teams win, it'll be, okay well can you do that in NZ? I would have preferred to start proceedings with a regular home or away game.
I understand this was all forced due to COVID changes to travel etc. but I still just wanted to voice my frustration.
Can almost guarantee there'll be more NZ fans than Aus fans. Best thing for Aus rugby is if the Gov passed a law saying every NZer applying for permanent residency needs to support the local super team. I'm sure that's constitutional.I think you can look at it the other way and say it's a really nice gauge as a neutral venue. Roughly the same distance/flight from NZ and Perth, there should be fans from all teams there so no huge home advantage one way or the other for all teams (even the Rebels don't get great home support). The forecast looks fair.
Play ball.
Super Round Melbourne match, Moana Pasifika versus Western Force, postponed due to COVID-19.
The Super Rugby Pacific Round 10 match between Moana Pasifika and the Western Force has been postponed due to COVID-19 impacts on the Western Force squad.
The Super Rugby Pacific Medical Advisory Group made the decision to postpone the match, scheduled for this Friday 22 April as part of Super Round Melbourne, due to a large number of the Force squad being unavailable for selection.
The Super Rugby Pacific tournament is very disappointed to have to postpone another game this season and for it to be impossible to play all six contemplated matches as part of this weekend’s Super Round, but the decision was made with the best interests for the health and wellbeing of players and staff in mind.
Every effort was made to try to ensure this game could go ahead as part of Super Round Melbourne, but with a large contingent of the Western Force squad unavailable, it simply wasn’t feasible.
Super Round Melbourne still promises to be an incredible, historic weekend for the competition, with five Super Rugby Pacific matches and the Australian Super W final all taking place at AAMI Park in Melbourne.
SANZAAR will now work with all stakeholders to find a suitable date for the postponed match to take place.
Affected ticket holders for the Friday 22 April event will be contacted by Ticketek regarding their tickets.
Ha, like common sense in Australian rugby would ever prevail.Silver lining perhaps. Now they could potentially move the Super W final into that time slot.
SANZAAR confirmed the rest of the schedule for the three-day event will be unchanged, which will see the five remaining games and the Super W Final.
So the same time in Samoa/Tonga for the would've been Pasifika match..It would mean a 10:30pm kick off in Fiji for the Super W final. Keeping it on Saturday afternoon is probably best.
So the same time in Samoa/Tonga for the would've been Pasifika match..
Don't have to move the Fijiana match to the Friday. You now have an uneven 1, 3, 2 matches on the days. Move a Super Rugby one from Saturday to the Friday slot and move the Fijiana match in that place.
Well, I think the ticket thing is already chaotic. How do you work out the refunds for any of the combination of tickets since none were specifically for 1 match but yes absolutely move the Tahs match back at the very least SURELY.Then you've got the issue that people have bought tickets to a specific day that now doesn't include a match you paid for.
Look, I completely get the argument about moving stuff around and I have no doubt that if we were more than two days out things would be rejigged.
I just don't think a big schedule change is realistic two days before the event.
Pushing back the kick-off of the Tahs vs Chiefs seems the most reasonable change at this point.