Ex-Wallabies expect third Bledisloe Cup Test to be played

Planet Rugby 19 Aug 2021 7:19 AM

Ex-Wallabies second-row Peter Fitzsimons is confident that next weekend’s third Bledisloe Cup Test will go ahead.

There is uncertainty whether the fixture, which is scheduled to take place in Perth on August 28, will be played after Western Australia’s government introduced fresh quarantine rules for arriving New Zealanders following that country’s Level Four lockdown and an increase in Covid-19 cases.

The All Blacks are set to leave for Perth on Sunday, but anyone arriving in Australia from New Zealand must now self isolate for two weeks.

Travel pause could be extended

The travel pause is currently scheduled to end on August 24, but it could be extended, as the Australian government will review it on Friday.

The Western Australia (WA) government has said the Bledisloe Cup encounter may not be able to be held. However, Fitzsimons believes the game will be played and said the Tokyo Olympics showed it can be done.

“Japan, Tokyo, has proven that it is possible to put something on in the middle of a pandemic, very successfully, with 3,500 people a day I think in Tokyo were getting infected (new Covid cases) and here in Perth there is zero a day, or one a day,” he told Radio New Zealand. “So, I would be surprised if it (third Bledisloe Cup test) doesn’t proceed one way or another.”

The All Blacks may get an exemption but New Zealand Rugby, Rugby Australia and SANZAAR are yet to determine whether that can happen.

It’s understood SANZAAR are meeting on Thursday to try and decide where the third Bledisloe Cup Test and remaining Rugby Championship fixtures will be played.

Other options include moving the game and tournament to Queensland, where Covid restrictions are less severe than WA, however the All Blacks would still have to quarantine.

Western Australia rugby chief executive, ex-Wallabies hooker Nathan Charles, hopes the third Bledisloe Cup Test, which doubles as a Rugby Championship match, will still be played in Perth despite the state’s new quarantine requirements on visitors from New Zealand.

Charles believes there’s been precedents to allow the game to go ahead as scheduled.

“We’ve got to be very agile in the current environment,” he said.

“It’s happened with the AFL/NRL, all the major sporting codes, they’ve had to provide some flexibility, and with a game of this magnitude, I think there will have to be some sort of flexibility.

“What that looks like, I don’t know.”

The Wallabies were granted an exemption when they came to New Zealand for the first two Bledisloe Cup Tests at Eden Park in Auckland.