New Zealand Warriors brace for worst but Peter V’landys confident in two-way travel bubble

The Warriors were forced to base themselves in Terrigal for over 150 days during the 2020 season due to border closures. The NRL said in December that allowing the Warriors to host at least some games at home this season was “a priority”.

But a recent case of local transmission in New Zealand threatens to delay a planned Pacific bubble, allowing residents to travel freely between the two nations.

The Warriors have been able to bring their families over from New Zealand in recent weeks to join them ahead of the season. But George said he did not want to give the prospect of a two-way bubble “any energy”.

“We haven’t played there [Mt Smart Stadium] since August 2019. That’s 19, not 2020,” he said. “We are praying for it. We want to go home but the reality it is we are not letting it worry us because we can’t afford to sit here and listen to the news every day of the week. The problem is you don’t unpack your bags.”

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V’landys remains bullish on the chances of the Kiwis hosting games this season, believing the Pacific bubble will become a reality in the coming months.

“ I am confident that will happen,” V’landys said. “Once New Zealand extinguish this one [case], which they’ve done so well in the past, there will be a travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand.”

Australia shut its borders off to New Zealand for 72 hours following the positive case but began re-allowing New Zealanders to travel across the Tasman without the need for quarantine from Sunday afternoon.

“There’s already [a bubble] coming from New Zealand, it’s going back to New Zealand that’s the issue,” V’landys said. “All we’ve got to have is for New Zealand to reciprocate it, which I am sure they will.”

Last week, V’landys told the Herald he would be advocating for NRL players to be vaccinated after health care workers and the elderly to allow for the Warriors to host home games.

The request would be for NRL players to be included in the third phase of the vaccine roll-out, which includes half a million critical and high-risk workers.