Comment: We're only three weeks into the new rugby season and we're still a long way from being back to normal.
In a grassroots setting, pretty much everything regarding personal health and close contacts has to be taken in good faith, Jamie Wall writes. Photo: ©creativenature / 123RF
Super Rugby Pacific's games in Aotearoa are being played in front of empty stands, while Moana Pasifika's debut was delayed for two weeks due to a Covid-19 outbreak. But it's away from the cameras and lights, down at the grassroots, where there is serious concern over how the pandemic and vaccinations are going to affect the national game in the upcoming season.
That's what prompted Tom Robinson to take to social media. The Northland and Blues player admitted last week that he was nervous about a lengthy Instagram post he made last month (given the fallout from one by former Black Fern Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate that's fair enough) about removing vaccine mandates for club rugby, which received a fair degree of support from fellow elite level players.
"It wasn't spur of the moment, it was something I'd been thinking about for a couple of months," said Robinson.
"The amount of messages I got from people who have children who won't be able to play, it really gave me a gauge on how important sport is for those communities. I was pretty overwhelmed by the response."
Robinson's passion for his own community and the Kerikeri club he grew up playing for is obvious, even down the phone. He had cleared the content of his post with the Northland Rugby Union, and has also found sympathy from his employers in Wellington.
Despite announcing that plans are in place that work around unvaccinated players by having them play Sevens and 10-a-side, it's clear there is real frustration from NZ Rugby (NZR) on the eve of the club season's start around the country.
"If we leave it too long down the track, people are going to have made their mind up about playing sport," says NZ Rugby head of community rugby Steve Lancaster.
"Some clarity sooner rather than later would be good and - at the risk of sounding in opposition to what the government is doing - we need to know what the plan is.
"Then there's inconsistency between schools and clubs ... how does a kid playing rugby in a school jersey pose no risk to public health while a kid in a club jersey does? Usually it's the same kid."
Steve Lancaster is among those wanting to know the government's intentions over vaccine mandates within sport. Photo: Photosport
On the face of it, it seems like a bold move by NZR, after the events at Parliament on Wednesday, to nudge the government to relax mandates.
For the average senior club rugby player, Robinson's comments may come off as a little out-of-touch considering he's playing in a professional competition that was relocated to a Queenstown bubble, complete with every medical and social distancing precaution, in order to go ahead.
Contrast that to a grassroots setting, where pretty much everything regarding personal health and close contacts of everyone on the field has to be taken in good faith.
Go to any preseason training right now, especially in Auckland, and the resignation that basically everyone playing will get Covid-19 at some point during what will surely be a disrupted season is very palpable.
But that is, as is often the case these days, trying to make a very grey issue seem black and white.
A blanket vaccine mandate was always going to be a tough sell for NZR, as Robinson's post showed. Professional players are notoriously guarded about their personal and political opinions, with good reason, so for it to reach the point that one would speak out so passionately shows just how emotive the issue is.
Robinson's home province of Northland has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. NZR's participation data, overlaid with the vaccination rates of Northland, East Coast and the eastern Bay of Plenty, shows that a mandate would be a serious issue among the overwhelmingly large number of Māori players in those areas.
In effect, it's a snapshot of the entire vaccination issue: those expressing hesitancy are in the minority, but are very much concentrated in often rural and impecunious communities, having decisions made on their behalf by people far away in the cities.
Lancaster admits the data they're working off at the moment is anecdotal, but says "people want to play fifteens".
"But [at the red settings] you only have to have one unvaccinated person to be involved for the gathering limits around the game to change ... in saying that, we've always been very supportive of the government's push to see everyone vaccinated.
"We had the Heartland XV wear vaccine logos on their jerseys last year, so we've been vocal in our support. But what we want to be sure of is that no one is excluded, that rugby's doors aren't closed to anybody. That's not in our DNA."
It's a view shared by the chief of the Northland Rugby Union, Cam Bell, who says that "if you get the messaging wrong, you could lose people from any given sport".
"Let's focus on playing as much rugby as we possibly can. It was a breath of fresh air to hear (Health Minister Chris) Hipkins say they want to get rid of the mandates sooner rather than later but we're all sitting here holding our breath ... there is a likelihood our season start will be pushed out.
"Our vaccination rates among our kaumātua and kuia are actually really strong. It's a lot in the 12-35 age range that have chosen to take a stance, and they're the ones who we draw our playing base from."
Despite that, Bell is proud of what Northland rugby is achieving under the circumstances.
"We've had some really good green shoots coming out. Our Hokianga sub union have got representation at board level, they haven't for a number of years. A club like Panguru have come out of recess, that's so heartening for such a beautiful but economically-challenged part of the country. But the vaccination issue is big, so to lose any of those hearty souls from our game would be a travesty."
There is hope for Bell, Lancaster and the many others involved in the grassroots game, given that Hipkins has already signalled that vaccine passes will be gone by June.
Robinson's suggestion to have rapid antigen testing (RAT) at games is looking pretty feasible, anyway. On top of the 15 million RATs that arrived in the country last week, 7.7 million more have come in this week and are probably going to be part of everyday life for the foreseeable future.
Harsh pre-game tests are nothing new in rugby: in weight grades players are expected to get on a set of scales before kickoff and potentially be ruled out if the number showing isn't low enough, so the precedent is there.
"Everyone knows Northland has a really low vaccination rate and there's going to be a real struggle for some clubs to put together a team. For me, it's deeply concerning," Robinson says.
"Me speaking out is not about being for or against. It's about exploring alternatives so everyone can play sport."
*Jamie Wall is a current senior club rugby player who is double vaxxed and boosted. He encourages everyone playing this season to do the same.