Covid Update: Joe Sprangers, Touch NZ CEO

We are not aware of anyone that has run a Touch competition under L2.  Our only advice can be to abide by the Ministry of Health guidelines, which currently state that only groups of 100 can play/congregate together at any time.  Under current MOH guidelines for L2 you can have multiple groups of 100 spread across a playing venue but they cannot come into contact with each other or move between bubbles of 100, including the referees.  This would make it extremely difficult to run a Touch competition over multiple rounds and with having to keep all groups of 100 separated at all times.  Referees would only be able to referee one game within a group of 100 and could then not referee within another bubble of 100. Player referees would have to choose to play or referee as they cannot move between bubbles of 100 across multiple rounds of play

Effectively if the rest of the country moves to L1 (which is anticipated) then those modules can proceed. If Auckland remains at L2 or some configuration that limits the number of people that can congregate then we will make a determination at that point as to what that means for modules. Auckland Council will also have a say in this as they may impose limitations on park use dependent on the alert level status announced for Auckland next Monday by the PM.  

Any module that does not run due to COVID impact will be refunded their $350.00 registration fee.

Article added: Wednesday 09 September 2020