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Back to newsCOVID-19 update for clubs and schools
Dear members of our rugby community,
As you will know by now, New Zealand has reported its first COVID cases via community transmission in some time.
The four cases are from a family in South Auckland and as of midday on Wednesday, August 12, we will be moving back to level 3 in Auckland until at least Friday night.
The Counties Manukau Rugby Football Union’s offices will be closed from 12pm on Wednesday with staff to work remotely from home until the level 3 lockdown lifts.
This is obviously a developing situation but we need to plan for the fact we could be in lockdown again for some time.
For our Auckland-based clubs and secondary schools, under level 3 rules, all rugby trainings are to be cancelled until further notice. If level 3 is extended beyond Friday night, this will mean club and secondary competition games scheduled for this weekend will be called off.
A decision on those planned fixtures and what the potential cancellation of these games means for our competitions and draws will be made as quickly as possible.
We will be providing regular updates here on our website and through communications to club delegates and your school representatives.
For our Waikato-based clubs and secondary schools, under level 2 rules, rugby training is still allowed to go ahead as long as gatherings are kept under the 100-person limit, contact tracing is in place and cleaning and hygiene protocols are followed. Clubs over the Waikato border are entitled to make their own decisions in regards to training but we would encourage them to think carefully about the safety of their participants before deciding whether to continue training.
Please note that if Auckland remains at level 3 on Saturday, ALL games administered by the CMRFU – including any based in Waikato – will be cancelled.
We are in regular dialogue with New Zealand Rugby, the Junior Management Board and our Council of Delegates Executive Committee and will provide updates as more information comes to light.
For more information on how the Government’s levels relate to sport, please visit Sport NZ’s website here: https://sportnz.org.nz/covid-19/alert-level-information/
Please also see below for the latest rugby specific information regarding return to play protocols that were developed earlier in the year during the first extended lockdown period.
We will be looking to review these in the coming days and circulate updated documents in due course so if we are at level 2 by Saturday and a decision is made to proceed with rugby, clubs and schools will be able to host games while adhering to the protocols.
In regards to our upcoming representative programmes, again, we will wait until we have more information before making any key decisions in this space.
The Counties Power Heat were due to have a trial game against Waikato at Navigation Homes Stadium this Saturday and we will confirm in the coming days whether this game goes ahead.
As for the Farah Palmer Cup and the Mitre 10 Cup, it’s unclear yet how these competitions will be affected but we will provide further updates following discussions with NZ Rugby.
If you have purchased a season membership or tickets to any of our upcoming Mitre 10 Cup games, we’d ask that you please sit tight for now until we can confirm whether the competition will be impacted by the latest COVID announcement.
Stay safe everyone.
Aaron Lawton
CEO CMRFU
