New zealand rugby
All Blacks, France clash in heavyweight 2023 World Cup opener
The All Blacks, champions in 1987, 2011 and 2015, face Les Bleus at the Stade de France in Paris on September 8, the first day of the gruelling seven-week...
After winning 27-7 in Auckland, they accomplished their mission in Sydney by their biggest ever winning margin against the Wallabies.
New Zealand Rugby was up in arms when the initial schedule of the four-nation southern hemisphere tournament in Australia was released, with their last game set for December 12.
Rugby Championship organisers have unveiled a schedule that would leave the All Blacks stranded in quarantine at Christmas.
Read, 34, left New Zealand after last year’s Rugby World Cup and played under his former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen at Toyota in Japan’s Top League.
Haden played 117 matches for the All Blacks from 1972-1985, including 41 Tests, making his international debut in the series win against the British and Irish Lions in 1977.
Davis told Australian media that NZR had approached Australia’s Super Rugby teams directly to join its proposed 2021 competition while sidelining Rugby Australia (RA).
NZR said the planned revamp to the flagship southern hemisphere competition would contain New Zealand's five existing teams, one from the Pacific and two to four from Australia.
Hansen, who spent almost 16 years with the All Blacks said he felt that NZR should be doing what was best for their rugby players.
Robertson said it would be about 12-16 weeks before Barrett would be able to play again, which could also affect his chances of playing for the All Blacks if tests are arranged later this year.
Crowds for the four games held so far were averaging about 26,000, an increase of more than 105% on the wider Super Rugby tournament before it was shut down due to COVID-19, NZR’s Mark Robinson said.
The All Blacks lock suffered a "significant injury to the structures supporting his big toe" in a training game earlier this month, the Crusaders said.
New Zealanders on Tuesday celebrated their first day without coronavirus restrictions in three months, even as much of the rest of the world grappled with the pandemic.
The 26-year-old Barrett is one of three brothers in the All Blacks squad along with flyhalf Beauden and utility back Jordie, all of whom went to last year’s World Cup in Japan.
Eanna Falvey said domestic, provincial or club games would likely return first, progressing to Tests, with Australia and New Zealand best-placed to get the ball rolling.
Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson said professional sports would be able to resume domestically when the country lowers its COVID-19 alert level down a notch.
The shutdown to contain the coronavirus has frozen all rugby in New Zealand, idling hundreds of staff and players in the country’s five teams that compete in Super Rugby along with sides from Australia, South Africa, Argentina and Japan.
Super Rugby, which also includes teams from Australia, South Africa, Japan and Argentina, was suspended in March after seven rounds of the season when travel curbs and border controls aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 made it untenable.
After COVID-19 shut down global sport, New Zealand Rugby and the players' association agreed to put NZ$25 million on hold.