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Rugby: Women players worry whether game will return as NZ Super Rugby gears up

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Greg Stutchbury, Reuters

WELLINGTON - While New Zealand&#x27;s Super Rugby players are preparing to return to their teams on Monday before a domestic competition starts next month, the country&#x27;s elite women players are concerned at a lack of clarity on whether they will play at all this season.Most cross-border and domestic club rugby competitions have been suspended since March as countries implemented travel bans and imposed strict health protocols as they battled the COVID-19 pandemic.New Zealand Rugby (NZR) said this week a new domestic competition involving its five Super Rugby teams would start on June 13 after the government loosened some of the country&#x27;s lockdown restrictions and re-opened the economy.Elite female players, however, have started to voice concerns about a lack of information from the governing body about whether their own domestic provincial competition or the women&#x27;s national 15s and sevens teams will play this year.&quot;Communication hasn&#x27;t filtered down a lot at the moment, and I think that&#x27;s where that frustration is,&quot; Blacks Ferns sevens captain Sarah Hirini told Newstalk ZB on Saturday.&quot;We don&#x27;t know about our World Series tournament, we don&#x27;t know about the borders being opened up, we don&#x27;t even know when we can come back to see the rest of our teammates, even in level 2, so that&#x27;s probably the most challenging thing at the moment.&quot;World Rugby postponed both of the men&#x27;s and women&#x27;s global sevens circuits in March, while on Friday the organisation postponed all test matches scheduled for July.The women&#x27;s world champion Black Ferns were due to play the United States on July 18 at Otago Regional Stadium in Dunedin ahead of the All Blacks-Scotland clash.The postponements will place further financial strain on NZR, which has already projected a multi-million dollar loss for 2020 due to the pandemic and cancelled this year&#x27;s lower-tier provincial men&#x27;s competitions to cut costs.The top-tier men&#x27;s and women&#x27;s provincial competitions are still set to be held.Several provincial women&#x27;s players, however, have voiced concerns their competition could also be a victim of cost-cutting.NZR Chief Executive Mark Robinson acknowledged the players&#x27; frustration but said work was being done to ensure the women&#x27;s provincial competition and internationals would be played this year.&quot;There are significant pressures around rugby as a whole and New Zealand Rugby at the moment in terms of finding the funding to do these things,&quot; Robinson told Newstalk ZB.&quot;It&#x27;s simply a case of trying to find the resources.&quot; (Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by William Mallard)

WELLINGTON - While New Zealand's Super Rugby players are preparing to return to their teams on Monday before a domestic competition starts next month, the country's elite women players are concerned at a lack of clarity on whether they will play at all this season.

WELLINGTON - While New Zealand's Super Rugby players are preparing to return to their teams on Monday before a domestic competition starts next month, the country's elite women players are concerned at a lack of clarity on whether they will play at all this season.

Rugby: Women players worry whether game will return as NZ Super Rugby gears up

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Rugby: Women players worry whether game will return as NZ Super Rugby gears up

Greg Stutchbury,

Reuters

Published May 16, 2020 03:22 PM PHT

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New Zealand

Super Rugby

COVID-19

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