Auckland-based teams are quickly running out of time to re-enter the National Provincial Championship race under COVID-19 lockdown.
The national men's competition resumed three weeks ago, after most of the country dropped to Alert Level 2, but Auckland, North Harbour and Counties Manukau have languished on the sidelines, as the region struggles to stem a wave of Delta cases that has now spread to parts of the Waikato.
Last week, the three unions were allowed to begin socially distanced, non-contact fitness training to prepare for their return to the field and NZ Rugby seems prepared to extend the fixtures deep into November to accommodate them.
But NZR community general manager Steve Lancaster admits those teams will struggle to return, unless they receive the required clearance this week.
"We're at a critical point now where, beyond this week, it becomes incredibly challenging for the Auckland teams to manage an adequate return-to-play and then rejoin the competition," he says. "We really need to know by the end of this week, whether it's feasible for those teams to re-enter the competition and we can make some decisions from there."
NZ Rugby has made a third application to move the Auckland, Harbour and Counties squads out of the region - two previous applications have been rejected on public health grounds.
"We are confident that measures we've outlined within the application will answer any concerns about risks to team members or the public, and will allow them to safely participate in the competition," says Lancaster.
"However, we're not the judges of that - we're leaving that in the hands of the Ministry of Health and we just await their decision.
"We're very mindful that the Government and its relevant agencies are juggling a lot of balls at the moment, and we're just one of those."
Women's teams from the three Auckland-based provinces were forced to withdraw from the Farah Palmer Cup competition last month.
Lancaster insists this latest application is not a "last-ditch" effort and if they cannot return to the draw, NZR would investigate other formats that would allow some play whenever possible.
Their absence would likely affect playoff formats and promotion-relegation considerations for the premiership and championship divisions, with November 27 circled as the latest date finals can be played.
The revised NPC draw has no fixtures beyond this weekend, as NZR awaits the outcome of its latest application.
Join us at 2pm Saturday for live updates of the Canterbury v Waikato Farah Palmer Cup premiership final
