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NZRL hopeful over national competitions

David Long

NZRL CEO Greg Peters hopes national competitions will be able to take place next month, even if Auckland teams aren’t involved.

The various lockdowns have led to the national competitions being pushed back numerous times, with the situation not helped by Auckland being in a different alert level to the rest of the country.

Peters said they have been continually preparing new schedules for the men’s, women’s and youth competitions and then needing to start again. But with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stating on Monday that the earliest Auckland could drop to level 2 would be on October 6, it does give the NZRL a rough idea on when competitions can begin.

‘‘We’ve landed on the latest programme that will enable us to have activity in the men’s and youth space. We’re contemplating when the National Sky Sports Women’s tournament happens, or if we push it back to the start of next year for the Premiership. But there will be some women’s activity in a competition format,’’ Peters said.

The latest plan is to have the men’s competition running through October, with the national youth tournament taking place during the middle of the month.

Auckland is the power base for league in New Zealand, with the Counties Stingrays and the Akarana Falcons two of the strongest teams, but Peters said they would reluctantly go ahead without them, which is a situation New Zealand Rugby is also facing for the North Harbour, Auckland and Counties Manukau NPC teams.

‘‘It’s not our desired position, but ultimately we’ll try to create football for those that can play this year,’’ Peters said.

Any chance of the Kiwis playing a test this year has been ruled out, but Peters is still hopeful the Kiwi Ferns can play a test in mid November, likely to be against a Pacific Island nation.

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2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282205129035326

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