England rugby great Lawrence Dallaglio has teed off on the All Blacks for their unwillingness to travel to the northern hemisphere to play tests this year.
The 2003 World Cup winner also lined up Australia and South Africa, who were also scheduled to head north at the end of the year, before the Covid-19 pandemic chewed up and spat out the playing calendar.
Dallaglio used the Pakistan and the West Indies cricket sides as examples when explaining it was possible to play matches there, given they’ve travelled to England to play tests in recent weeks.
“They have shown, clearly, you can come over to this country, you can self-isolate, put yourself in a bubble and you can play a test match series,’’ he told The Times Ruck Podcast.
“You can then self-isolate again before travelling home.’’
Dallaglio said ‘’there’s no reason’’ why the All Blacks couldn’t play five or six tests during the northern autumn.
“It’s interesting, isn’t it? Everyone talks about the southern hemisphere sides not being able to travel and not wanting to travel – it’s definitely the latter,’’ he told The Times Ruck Podcast.
“Clearly New Zealand, South Africa and Australia don’t want to come here.”
Starting in November, the All Blacks were scheduled to play England, Wales and Scotland to wrap up 2020. The matches haven’t been rescheduled.
However, after the interrupted Six Nations is completed, the northern sides will be joined by Fiji and Japan in a new Eight Nations tournament, starting on November 14.
Meanwhile, the wait for New Zealanders to see the All Blacks under new coach Ian Foster goes on, with no confirmed matches scheduled as yet.
There is optimism a Bledisloe Cup series against Australia will at least go ahead, although recent community spread of Covid-19 in Auckland won’t help planning.
“Understandably so, there’s a little bit of self-interest going on at the moment. New Zealand are protecting what they have and looking at their recent matches [Super Rugby Aoteroa] you can understand why,” Dallaglio told The Times Ruck Podcast.
“Australian rugby are just trying to get themselves sorted out in every single way, there’s lots going on there.”
