Super Rugby Pacific's six New Zealand sides will relocate to Queenstown, in order to mitigate the risk of a COVID-19 disrupted season, New Zealand Rugby has confirmed.
The five New Zealand sides - the Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes, Crusaders and Highlanders - and newcomers Moana Pasifika will now travel to Queenstown to form a centralised hub, seeing all matches played within the city to avoid travelling throughout the country and risk exposure to the virus.
The competition's first three weeks will be played exclusively in Southland, before the teams return to their home bases - regardless of New Zealand's COVID situation.
"Under current COVID-19 regulations it would only take one positive case entering a squad environment to shut down an entire squad for 10 days," NZ Rugby's head of professional rugby Chris Lendrum says.
"The knock-on effect for the rest of the competition would be the postponement or cancellation of matches.
"By moving the teams to a secure hub, we believe we have a good chance of preventing a COVID-19 infection, or close contact event, side-lining one of our teams for a prolonged period.
"The plan is currently for the teams to move to Queenstown early next week and remain in Queenstown for the opening three weeks of the competition."
Day matches of the new Super Rugby Pacific competition will be played at Queenstown's Wakatipu Rugby Club, while teams will travel to Invercargill's Rugby Park for night matches, due to its floodlight system.
Teams will operate exclusively within bubbles, and be subject to identical COVID-19 protocols seen by the All Blacks on the 2021 end of year tour. Teams will also undergo regular rapid antigen tests in order to ensure the competition's COVID-free status.
NZR also says it is weighing up options on how to play the inaugural Super Rugby Aupiki women's competition, and is committed to seeing the tournament played.
Super Rugby Pacific begins on February 18.
