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Public apology given after All Blacks star among players caught flouting lockdown

Richie Mo'unga. (Getty Images)

The Super Rugby champion Crusaders have been forced to apologise after several members of their squad were spied flouting New Zealand’s isolation rules.

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All Blacks five-eighth Richie Mo’unga was the only player identified among a group passing and kicking a ball to each other at a Christchurch park on Monday.

Photographs of the players emerged on social media and the Crusaders confirmed they had breached their own rules around individual training during the coronavirus lockdown.

Under the country’s strict controls, households have to stay within their own “bubble” and maintain social distancing from others.

Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge said he had reprimanded the players involved, who reside in three different bubbles.

“They shouldn’t have been at the same location,” Mansbridge told Newshub. “It wasn’t planned and they should know better. I have spoken to those involved, and will reinforce that again tonight.”

The Crusaders have since released a statement to address the issue.

“The Crusaders are aware of some of our players training at Malvern Park in Christchurch today,” the statement read.

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“Management have spoken with the players involved, all of whom live within walking distance of Malvern Park. The club is confident this was not an organised training session among the group, but rather one group of flatmates training in their ‘bubble’ who were coincidentally joined by a second group. Meanwhile, one player completed running blocks individually. While these players made a conscious effort to observe physical distancing, they did share equipment by throwing and kicking a rugby ball among themselves.”

Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge said: “In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is a time when our community needs to work together and look after one another, and our players are social leaders in that regard.

“The guidelines from the New Zealand Government are clear, and all of the players involved have acknowledged they made a mistake by sharing equipment. I am confident, I know there wasn’t a conscious effort to flout the rules, but this is a timely and valuable lesson for all. We have reiterated the guidelines to both the group directly involved, and our wider Crusaders squad to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

Watch: Episode 2 of Investec Super Rugby Isolation Nation.

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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?

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