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Fans still waiting on refunds for suspended Super Rugby matches

Crusaders wing George Bridge is tackled against Stormers

More than a month after all rugby across New Zealand was postponed indefinitely, fans were still struggling to get ticket refunds for a game originally scheduled for his weekend.

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And some received a refund only this week, after being told that the upcoming Crusaders v Stormers game hadn’t officially been postponed, despite mass gatherings being banned at alert level 3.

One Auckland-based rugby fan told the Herald she and her husband booked flights to Christchurch and tickets to the May 2 game, only for the country to go into lockdown five weeks ago.

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Alex Nankivell and Elliot Dixon battle it out in the first round of our 16-man FIFA tournament.

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Alex Nankivell and Elliot Dixon battle it out in the first round of our 16-man FIFA tournament.

Their flights were cancelled as the country shut down, but she was unable to organise a refund for the postponed game.

Ten days before New Zealand went into lockdown, Sanzaar announced that all Super Rugby was suspended for the foreseeable future and eight days later, all rugby was suspended nationally.

While Kiwis have gained an inch more of freedom as the lockdown lifted to alert level 3 on Tuesday, public venues remain shut, with gatherings limited to 10 people at any time.

“We were told that there was going to be a local game, but all of the flights were cancelled,” the Auckland woman, who didn’t want to be named, said.

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“I just don’t understand, the game clearly wasn’t going to go ahead. We wouldn’t have gotten a refund if we hadn’t pursued it.”

A Crusaders spokeswoman said it had been working with Ticketek over the past few weeks to refund fans who had purchased single game tickets.

“As you’ll be aware, we are still waiting on final confirmation of what the 2020 Super Rugby competition will look like and the competition is currently suspended,” she said.

“While delayed, we are planning for some live rugby to occur later in the year and, in the meantime, we are grateful for the support and patience shown by Crusaders fans, as we work through this process.”

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But the Auckland fan said she only received a refund for the two tickets when she threatened to contact the media.

She wanted to share the five-week ordeal to remind other ticket holders that they had a right to a refund.

“It’s very rude and very frustrating, because it’s not a lot of money, but the principle of the thing – if they can’t supply you what you bought they need to refund it.

“It makes you wonder how much money they’re holding on to, it’s really not fair.”

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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LONG READ England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit
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