Super Rugby: Chiefs cleared of Covid-19 after sharing flight with Moana Pasifika

Laghlan McWhannell of the Chiefs collects the ball from a lineout during the Super Rugby Pacific Game of Three Halves. Photo / Getty

After being asked by the Southern DHB to undergo Covid-19 testing, the Chiefs are in the clear.

In a stressful 24 hours for all involved in the upcoming Super Rugby Pacific season, the Chiefs were required to undergo PCR testing after seven players of the Moana Pasifika team returned positive tests.

The Chiefs played a pre-season game against the competition's newest team last weekend, and shared a flight down to the Super Rugby Queenstown bubble with them earlier this week.

Skipper Sam Cane said it made for a troublesome night for members of the team staff, but most of the players were confident they would be cleared of any infection.

"I wasn't too worried about it personally," Cane said. "We had these super thick masks on that made it particularly hard to breathe on the flight, so the virus would've had to have done pretty well to get through that. And despite knowing some of the boys, no one really stopped and chatted to each other or fist bumped or anything like that.

"We kept our distance at each end of the plane. I know a few of the management were up stressing last night waiting for the Covid results to come back, but I think most of the boys slept pretty well and were quietly confident.

"It just highlights sometimes it can be down to a bit of luck so we just have to make sure we stay very vigilant with the protocols. I suppose it helps being down here, with a lot of the things we're doing outside of rugby are outdoors – jumping in the lake post-training and things like that to keep a balance between rugby and having a bit of fun and downtime."

It has been quite a staccato preseason for the teams and New Zealand Rugby in planning around how to get the season going despite the threat of the Omicron variant, however at this stage, Moana Pasifika's opening match against the Blues is the only one to be impacted, with the fixture being postponed.

While Moana Pasifika have been the most impacted, Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan admitted the pre-season process had been a little bit disruptive, but said he had no complaints over how his team were poised heading into the opening round of the campaign.

"We're well aware of the challenges around Covid-19 and Queenstown has been really organised, it's been a really good set-up, so for the most part it's just been business as usual," McMillan said.

"I would like to think we've been keeping a pretty tight bubble right through our whole preseason. We were on the same plane as Moana Pasifika on the way down, so the Southern DHB requested that we all get tested. We all went through that process yesterday; everybody in our whole squad and management have come back clear, so we're really a little bit lucky.

"By the same token, we feel for Moana Pasifika. It's a big year and having a setback like this is disappointing for them. We wish them well in their recovery and hopefully they get back out on the field quickly."