Rugby: North Harbour to make vaccination against Covid-19 mandatory

North Harbour have been unable to complete their Bunnings NPC campaign. Photo / Getty

North Harbour Rugby have announced that they will implement a mandatory vaccination policy from next year.

The union's board passed in principle a resolution to support the policy at an October meeting, meaning all clubs and schools in the union will need to meet the vaccination requirement.

North Harbour Rugby staff and the union's NPC players have all been double vaccinated, which chair and acting chief executive Gerard van Tilborg said was the way forward for the union's teams.

"It is clear that from 2022 there will be a need for a strong and practicable vaccination policy," van Tilborg said in a statement. "The board has the view that anything other than a mandatory vaccination policy will be unmanageable for our clubs and schools.

"It has been well documented through the Government and the Ministry of Health that getting vaccinated is the priority for the country right now, and once we move to the traffic light system there will no doubt be significant challenges for clubs and schools to meet
the requirements to enable them to open up facilities.

"As yet we have had no clear guidance from Government, NZ Rugby and Sport NZ. Over the coming months we will be working closely both with these organisations...to ensure that we can all move forward to get back to the game we love while protecting our whanau."

North Harbour's senior representative teams need no reminder about the havoc Covid can wreak on the rugby season. Neither the men's side in the Bunnings NPC nor the women's team in the Farah Palmer Cup were able to complete their campaigns this year after travel restrictions were imposed on the Auckland region following the Delta outbreak.

In other codes, New Zealand football are considering mandating vaccinations against Covid-19 as a prerequisite for selection in their national teams, while the Breakers basketball team released star guard Tai Webster after he had initially refused to be vaccinated.