Australia has plucked the Rugby Championship hosting rights off New Zealand, with the tournament to be staged in NSW and Queensland and include Argentina despite new COVID-19 cases in their camp.
New Zealand was originally slated to host the November-December tournament, also involving the Pumas and the World Cup-winning Springboks, but Australia was instead given the nod following a Sanzaar teleconference on Thursday night.
As well as commercial considerations, Australia’s less onerous border and quarantine restrictions are behind the switch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern claiming the country was a victim of “Sanzaar politics” when quizzed on Friday.
The six-week, 12-match tournament will primarily be staged in NSW, with one round in Queensland.
New Zealand will instead host two Bledisloe Tests in October – originally slated for Australia – before heading across the Tasman for the Championship.
It’s a shot in the arm for financially stricken Rugby Australia, who were desperate to get some Test action back on the field this year, with interim RA boss Rob Clarke thankful for government support and determined to “knuckle down to make these plans a reality”.
New coach Dave Rennie will name the squad on Sunday, which will be an expanded 46-man squad with a quarantine bubble not allowing players to be brought in as injury cover.
Meanwhile Mario Ledesma, the former Wallabies assistant, has tested positive for coronavirus along with a number of other Pumas staff members and players.
Last week Argentina Rugby announced six of its players had tested positive for COVID-19.
A statement posted on the Pumas website said: “The results of the swabs showed the appearance of positive cases of COVID-19 in some members of the staff. Among them, the coaches Mario Ledesma, Nicolas Fernandez Miranda and Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe.
“For their part, the new positive cases among the players correspond to Felipe Ezcurra, Matias Moroni, Tomas Cubelli, Matias Orlando and Mateo Carreras. “Those infected were isolated, are asymptomatic and in good health.”