Six Auckland-based rugby players have been returned to their homes, after they were wrongfully exempted to travel and play for other provinces under COVID-19 protocols.
With New Zealand divided under alert levels and Auckland still languishing under Level 4 , the National Provincial Championship will resume for teams outside the city on Friday.
But NZ Rugby has revealed that players on loan to outside unions were inadvertently granted travel exemptions to leave lockdown and travel to those provinces to play this weekend.
Six players had relocated to Wellington, Hawke's Bay, Manawatu, Bay of Plenty and Northland over the past 6-10 days.
NZ Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson insists the players and their adopted provincial unions had followed the exemption process in good faith, including full disclosure of their circumstances and their roles as professional rugby players, but admits the forms were filed "incorrectly".
"I want to make it clear the players are not at fault in this situation," says Robinson. "The respective provincial unions managed an online application process to move their players out of Auckland.
"We're frustrated that we're in this position, and we recognise it's incredibly unfortunate situation.
"We're certainly not hiding from it. We've come out and own this as quickly as we possibly can. We've been very proactive. Since we were made aware of this on late on Monday, we've talked to all of the necessary agencies as soon as possible, and been very open and transparent with all of them.
"We are disappointed with what has occurred. Our focus now is to support our players and provincial unions, who now recognise that their processes should have been more robust.
"We are working closely with them to remedy the situation and get the players home. They are all following health authority advice around COVID-19 protocols."
All six players were vaccinated, four of them fully.
"The Government has been extremely understanding since we approached them, and we are grateful for their advice and guidance," says Robinson. "We'd also like to thank our provincial Unions for their cooperation as we have worked through this issue."
