Codes hit the brakes

STILL A WEEK AWAY: Poverty Bay’s Taine Aupouri makes ground against Ngati Porou East Coast in the Coast’s centenary celebration game at Whakarua Park, Ruatoria, in June. Both teams will have to wait at least a week to start their Heartland rugby programme. Picture by Paul Rickard

Gisborne sporting organisations are taking a safety-first approach in the wake of the Government's Covid-19 lockdown announcement yesterday.

Rugby, netball, hockey, football and waka ama have all spelled out the need for their members to refrain from any activity that could spread the virus or cause the callout of emergency services.

However, the team-sport codes indicated they would be assessing developments and seeking guidance about when competition could resume.

The start date of Heartland rugby has been put back a week following the announcement of community transmission of Covid-19.

With the number of confirmed cases growing this morning, the action plan calls for a one-week halt to all competition, with postponed games to be played at the end of the scheduled round-robin.

Poverty Bay Rugby chief executive Josh Willoughby said he hoped the union would keep its home game against King Country for later in the season.

However, questions had yet to be answered as the country got a clearer picture of the outbreak.

Following an emergency zoom call among all 26 rugby unions and New Zealand Rugby at 9am this morning, the decision to postpone was made in less than five minutes.

Willoughby said the Poverty Bay union was still hopeful of hosting the game against King Country, but discussions were being held about how late they could finish the season.

This weekend Buller were meant to travel to Ruatoria to play Ngati Porou East Coast, and King Country to Gisborne's Rugby Park for their game against Poverty Bay.

A curtain-raiser between Turanga and King Country Development has also been postponed.

Community rugby has also been put on hold for one week, which affects the Uawa Barry Cup challenge against Waikohu, which was to have taken place on Sunday.

In netball, the highly anticipated battle royal that was to take place at the YMCA tonight will have to wait. Gisborne Netball Centre has postponed all netball in line with the Covid-19 Level 4 rules.

The top four teams in the premier grade championship were to go head to head this evening to decide who would go through to the grand final scheduled for Saturday.

The answer to the question “Will it be YMP Sunshine Brewery, Whangara Old Girls, F45 High School Old Girls, or Clayden's Waikohu (1) will be answered . . . eventually.

“Yes, the Level 4 lockdown is terrible timing in terms of our finals week,” Gisborne Netball Centre manager Allisa Hall said.

“Tonight's premier preliminary finals are postponed, along with the Thursday men's league, and the Gisborne Netball Centre courts at Victoria Domain are locked.

“There will be no access for training until further notice.

“We will need to assess the situation as more information becomes available.

“This is one of the most important times of our season, and we need to look at all options before we can confirm what will be able to go ahead. Please bear with us.

“The GNC board and staff will communicate any updates or confirmed postponement dates as soon as we can.

“In the meantime, stay home and stay safe with your whanau, and visit the website if you need further information.”

The hockey semifinals planned for Saturday have been put on hold until more information becomes available on where the lockdown will go.

Poverty Bay Hockey operations manager Louise Teneti said it was too early to make decisions about the semifinals.

“It's really hard to say at this stage what will happen with the semis.

“We will have a zoom meeting with the committee to make decisions about it when we get the right information.

“It possibly means we put the semis off another weekend out to see how things pan out with Covid,” Teneti said.

“It really is a wait-and-see situation.

“We want to run our semifinals and our finals so people can come to watch and celebrate the year.

“We do not want it to be like last year where we had to usher one team in at a time at prize-giving. to keep within the gathering limitations.”

All football is suspended across the Central Federation until 11.59pm on Friday night. This federation runs across the centre of the North Island and includes Gisborne and Wairoa.

Central Federation officials expect to make a decision about weekend fixtures by the end of today.

Waka Ama NZ has sent out a message to clubs: “For the safety of yourself, your whanau and the wider community, we are reminding all our waka ama whanau to stay home; this means no paddling of any kind during Level 4.”