New Zealand Warriors in it for the long haul after returning to Australia

George hoped that travel restrictions between Australia and New Zealand would be lifted by then and the Warriors could play out the rest of the season based in Auckland.

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However, with coronavirus cases popping up in Australia again over the last few weeks, the New Zealand government’s plans to set up a travel bubble in the first quarter of 2021 now seem too optimistic and George says the Warriors could be in Australia for longer than the first four rounds of the season.

“I suspect it will be, but fingers crossed that changes and our prime minister looks after us and gets us home,” George said.

While there is a lot of uncertainty around the Warriors’ plans for the season – which was the case for most of last year – all the players and staff know they will spend at least three months in Australia.

“Because we’ve been planning this since April, nothing has been a surprise,” George said.

“They [the NRL] were very confident that things would have opened up and we’d be back to normal, but we were always pushing the envelope that we were only dealing with what was in place today, not speculating or anything like that.

“On that basis, they were very accommodating, they’ve helped us plan it, they’ve helped us with the logistics. We’re ready to go and they’re a big part of that.”

Stuff.co.nz