No crowds allowed at Bay of Plenty Steamers preseason game against Counties Manukau

Mitch Karpik in action for the Steamers during last year's Mitre 10 Cup. Photo / File

The Bay of Plenty Steamers are taking their preseason game against Counties Manukau to Whakatāne, unfortunately there will be nobody there to see it.

When the Steamers host Counties at Rugby Park on Friday, the only spectators will be a few seagulls, a handful of Bay of Plenty Rugby Union staff, the six ball boys and their minder from Ōpōtiki Under-12s.

The level 2 protocols for New Zealand Rugby's domestic competitions, which preseason games fall under, have a component of workplace health and safety wrapped around them.

Both the Mitre 10 Cup and the Farah Palmer Cup have been deemed workplaces and as a result they have a higher standard of compliance and risk minimisation associated with them.

The 100 person mass gathering protocol which applied to both spectators and corporate hospitality packages was the most challenging aspect of all of the NZR level 2 protocols, the union said in a statement today.

All provincial unions and venues must grapple with these and create strong plans which ensured the safety of both the teams, the workers delivering the event and any spectators, if at all.

Bay of Plenty Rugby match day manager for all Mitre 10 Cup and Farah Palmer Cup matches Pat Rae said deciding whether to allow crowds into this Friday's preseason match was a difficult decision to make, but one which ultimately safeguarded the two teams and minimised their risk.

"Counties Manukau have just spent two and a half weeks in level 3 lockdown with restricted travel and movements and I am doing everything that I can to ensure they can play a game of rugby in preparation for the upcoming Mitre 10 Cup, something they've not been able to do for three weeks, but also do it with as little risk as possible," Rae said.

View this post on Instagram

The Steamers have their one and only pre-season game this Friday in Whakatane against @countiesrugby, however due to Level 2 restrictions and putting the safety of the teams first, no crowds will be allowed to enter Rugby Park 😓 UPDATE: we will now be live streaming the game over on our Facebook page, kick off 2pm! Read the full statement online at www.boprugby.co.nz

A post shared by Bay of Plenty Rugby Union (@boprugby) on Aug 31, 2020 at 4:37pm PDT

This meant everyone working at these events including staff, security, stadium personnel, Sky staff, caterers, match officials, media, and ball people will have to undergo Covid-19 screening two days prior to the event and again as they signed in to the venues.

Because the venues will be designated workplaces for the duration of the matches, there's no limit to the number of workers that will be engaged in delivering the event.

The higher standard of compliance and risk minimisation also effected all of the teams and their management involved in these two competitions. There is a whole raft of strategies that the teams and their management must now do in order keep safe including daily health checks, face masks on planes and at airports and team buses travelling to and from airports, hotels and venues just to name a few.

These restrictions will be reviewed if the alert level is dropped down to level 1.