All Blacks captain Sam Cane leads the All Blacks for the Haka at Eden Park on October 18, 2020 in Auckland, New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images.
All Blacks captain Sam Cane leads the All Blacks for the Haka at Eden Park on October 18, 2020 in Auckland, New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images.
In incredibly uncertain times, a plan has been made for the All Blacks' 2021 season. Gregor Paul reports on what it will look like.
Normality is likely to prevail for the All Blacks in 2021, with a July series against Italy a probable starter, a Rugby Championship co-hosted by NewZealand and Australia on the cards and an end of year tour to Japan and Europe odds-on to go ahead.
No one can be confident this will be the scenario that eventuates, but it is the one being walked towards and one that ideally will be provisionally confirmed by the end of next month.
After three temperate rounds of Super Rugby Aotearoa, there is an argument to be made that the lack of certainty about what lies ahead this season is negatively impacting various players.
High performance athletes are simple beasts who need to understand their landscape so they can plan, prepare and prioritise.
Last season was massively disrupted, but the consolation at least, was when the players returned from lockdown in June, they knew precisely what was ahead of them.
With two rounds of Super Rugby, a North versus South game and six tests – players had the confidence of knowing that their revamped season was going to be relatively short and that they were coming into it on the back of a prolonged rest and reconditioning period.
Those two factors were critical in helping produce the sort of intense, frantic, dramatic rugby that we saw throughout Super Rugby Aotearoa in 2020.
Sam Cane leads on the All Blacks in their test match against Argentina in 2020. Photo / Photosport
But 2021 has kicked off with so many unknowns. At the moment, no one knows where the finish line is in Super Rugby Aotearoa as it has not yet been determined whether the competition will be two or three rounds.
The players have entered an 800m race that may become a 1200m race halfway through the second lap and it looks as if some individuals are understandably playing within themselves as a result of not knowing exactly what sort of event they are part of.
It's an issue that New Zealand Rugby is aware of and keen to clean up, but equally, that has to be balanced against the commercial and playing benefits of being able to go-ahead with the planned trans-Tasman competition that is scheduled to kick off in early May.
Hope is fading that the forecast travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia will be agreed in time to make a cross border competition viable, but both nations want to put off making a final decision until at least the end of this month to see whether their respective governments can make progress on this increasingly vexed issue.
In terms of the test programme, World Rugby is understood to be leaving it up to individual nations to determine whether they are willing and/or able to fulfil the scheduled July fixtures.
Will Jordan of the All Blacks makes a break to score a try during the 2020 Tri-Nations match between the Argentina Pumas and the New Zealand All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images.
Italy are thought to be keen to come to New Zealand to play two tests in July as are Fiji, but they may struggle to gain access to their players.
There is no prospect of a 'traditional' Rugby Championship taking place where the four nations play home and away.
The most likely outcome is that South Africa and Argentina will play two tests each against the All Blacks in New Zealand and then two each against the Wallabies in Australia.
They will also have to play two tests against each other – which could be in either New Zealand or Australia.
Potentially the All Blacks could play two Bledisloe Cup tests in Australia and two in New Zealand, but the final decision will be determined by the logistics around quarantine arrangements and possible travel bubbles.
They have to play each other twice as part of the Rugby Championship and for the last nine years they have added a third test into the programme.
Given the situation, there is no appetite or justification for travelling to play a one-off test, hence the likelihood that the series will either be two tests played in one country or four tests split between them.
The All Blacks are scheduled to play November tests against France, Ireland and Italy in Europe, with a fixture against Japan in Tokyo also under consideration.
With the vaccine roll-out likely to be well advanced by then, confidence is relatively high that the All Blacks will be happy to travel and fulfil their obligations.
