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Highlanders to face Jaguares behind closed doors in Buenos Aires due to coronavirus

(Photo by Dianne Manson/Getty Images)

The Highlanders will play the Jaguares behind closed doors in Buenos Aires this weekend due to growing concerns regarding the coronavirus outbreak.

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The decision to prevent fans from attending the fixture, which is to be held at Estadio Jose Amalfitani, was made by the Jaguares on the social media pages just 48 hours ahead of kick-off.

As it stands, only 19 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Argentina, but both teams have recently travelled from South Africa, where there are 17 confirmed cases.

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“In view of the coronavirus (COVID-19) spread in Argentina, we inform that the match between Jaguares and Highlanders will be held as a closed-door event at José Amalfitani Stadium,” the Jaguares said in a statement.

“In accordance with the measure taken by the government of the City of Buenos Aires, which includes all mass events, we assume our responsibility as organisers in the face of a public health issue that is threatening society as a whole.”

Highlanders head coach Aaron Mauger told reporters that were having daily temperature checks for signs of COVID-19, which has taken nearly 5000 lives worldwide.

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The news adds to a chaotic day for sport around the globe, where events across an array of disciplines are facing postponements or cancellations.

In Europe, the PRO14 has been suspended, as has the Major League Rugby competition in North America has been postponed for 30 days.

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Outside of rugby, two NBA All-Stars – Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell – have tested positive for the virus, leading to the indefinite postponement of the world’s premier basketball competition.

Similarly, the NCAA has cancelled it’s men’s and women’s basketball tournaments just as the season was heading into its final few weeks, while the opening day of Major League Baseball has been delayed by at least two weeks.

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Elsewhere, Mikel Arteta, manager of Premier League giants Arsenal, has tested positive for illness, and the Australian Grand Prix remains under severe threat of cancellation after McLaren withdrew from the event due to a team member contracting the virus.

In other news:

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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
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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.

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