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Beauden Barrett's Suntory Sungoliath progress to Top League semi-finals after match cancelled due to COVID

Beauden Barrett (Getty Images)

While New Zealand and Australia’s Super Rugby seasons have been mostly unaffected by the ongoing global pandemic, Australasian players based in Japan have been faced with a number of disruptions.

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The season was delayed by over a month due to various outbreaks across Japan at the beginning of January while the vast majority of matches have been played under strict crowd limits.

The latest consequence of the pandemic, however, is perhaps the one that will leave the most people frustrated.

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Beaudan Barrett on Trans-Tasman rugby

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Beaudan Barrett on Trans-Tasman rugby

A COVID breakout amongst Ricoh Black Rams players following their victory over Toshiba Brave Lupus has forced the Rams to forfeit their quarter-final showdown with Suntory Sungoliath.

As a result, the likes of Suntory players Beauden Barrett, Samu Kerevi, Tevita Li and Sean McMahon could now go three weeks without playing a match due to the two-week break between the best of 16 round and the quarter-finals of this year’s competition.

It will be a massive blow for Elliot Dixon, Isaac Lucas, Ben Funnell at their Ricoh teammates, who overcame a mid-season slump to win three victories on the trot and would have entered the quarter-finals with plenty of belief in their abilities to upset the more fancied Suntory side.

While the Top League season is already comparatively less physical than the Super Rugby Aotearoa and Super Rugby AU competitions taking place at the moment, the number of cancelled matches that Suntory have missed this year will likely bode well for Beauden Barrett, who’s taking a one-season sabbatical in Japan.

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Barrett’s All Blacks teammates have regularly commented on the intensity and brutality of the Aotearoa competition, with halfback Aaron Smith suggesting that he preferred the old model that incorporated teams from Australia, South Africa, Argentina and Japan.

“I think if you look back over time, [the high attrition rate] is not a coincidence,” Smith recently said on the Devlin Radio Show. “Back-to-back derbies, it’s definitely got to have an impact.

“People don’t get how much harder you go against your best mate. It’s real. It’s not like saying we don’t respect the South Africans, Aussies, Jaguares, Japanese but when you play your mate every week, the collisions, the kilometres we run, it all adds up.”

Although the cancellation will be disappointing for Barrett and his teammates, it will help to ensure that the former World Rugby Player of the Year returns to New Zealand refreshed, fit and ready to fire for the international test season.

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Suntory will now play the winner of the Kubota Spears and the Kobelco Steelers in the Top League semi-finals on May 16.

While Kubota can call upon the likes of Springboks Malcolm Marx and Arno Botha, as well as former All Black centre Ryan Crotty, Kobelco have perhaps the greatest contingent on foreign superstars in their squad, including Brodie Retallick, Hayden Parker, Aaron Cruden, Ben Smith and Tom Franklin.

Suntory beat the Spears by 7 points in the regular season but did not come up against the Steelers. That quarter-final match will take place on May 9.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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