Highlanders ready for any restart

The Highlanders are well placed to play in a New Zealand Super Rugby competition, which may be played in July, and is likely to take place with no crowds.

Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark said in an interview with the Otago Daily Times yesterday the Highlanders had built up reserves wisely in the past few years and were a lean operation compared with other New Zealand Super Rugby teams.

Clark said when revenue from sponsorship, memberships, ticket sales and broadcasting all disappears it became a battle of survival.

"We are doing the best we can to make sure we do survive. We are in a relatively strong position and we can take advantage of that to come out stronger on the other side," he said.

"Over the last five years we have been in a position to build up reserves ... and we have a lean cost structure compared to other clubs."

He said all staff, not including players, had agreed to a 30% pay cut and no-one had been laid off.

The Highlanders had between 10 and 20 fewer people on staff compared with other NZ franchises, which Clark said were going to be forced to make tough decisions.

The lean approach harked back to 2010 where things were tight when he came on board and the philosophy since then was to not overspend and keep everything in check.

The Highlanders, after losing 14 top players from last season, had started the season with a win, four losses and a draw from the abandoned game against the Jaguares.

Clark said that was obviously not great and not up to expectations. But what it showed was the huge void between the Mitre 10 Cup and Super Rugby now, and the middle tier of players were no longer around in New Zealand rugby.

Perhaps the Highlanders should have blooded more players last season but that was hard when games needed to be won.

Highlanders players were sticking to a routine in lockdown, having to check in each day to talk to coaches and management about personal development, nutrition and strength and conditioning.

"We are also looking at growing some leaders as well. That is not something you would have done 20 years ago, but what we are finding now is players coming through are mollycoddled a lot and there are not a lot of natural leaders."

Though a restart was very much up in the air, Clark said a Super Rugby competition followed by a Mitre 10 Cup featuring All Blacks would be a good fit for the New Zealand season.

NZ Rugby was doing as much as possible with possible scenarios, and strength and conditioning coaches had advised it would take teams three weeks to get ready.

A derby series of eight matches for each team against the other four NZ sides, playing home and away, was being floated, possibly to start in early July. But that was dependent on many things. Physical distancing rules would mean it may be played behind closed doors.

He felt fans and players just wanted Super Rugby back on the park.