SANZAR has resolved travel challenges that have threatened to disrupt fixtures in the final Round of the Super Rugby regular season this weekend .
The cancellation of flights in Australia and New Zealand since last Sunday caused by an ash cloud from Chile’s Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano, put the travel arrangements of four teams in doubt – the Crusaders, Highlanders, Reds and Western Force.
SANZAR investigated all available alternatives aimed at resolving the matter.
In New Zealand, the Highlanders, who face the Blues at 19h35 on Friday, will travel on a charter flight to Auckland on Thursday afternoon.
The Crusaders will travel to Wellington for their fixture against the Hurricanes on a private DC 3 leaving at 11h00 on Friday. As there are limited seats on the flight, members of the Crusaders support staff will travel with team equipment by ferry from Picton to Wellington. The match takes place on saturday at 19h35 local time.
In Australia, the Reds departed for Auckland on Thursday morning en-route to Hamilton for their match against the Chiefs at 17h30 on Saturday.
The Western Force are booked on a flight that is due to leave Perth for Melbourne on Thursday morning. The Force play the Melbourne Rebels at 19h40 local time on Friday.
“We are relieved at this stage to have resolved these issues,” said SANZAR CEO Greg Peters. “Obviously until all teams are where they need to be for this weekend’s games we will continue to monitor the situation”.
“This has been the second major disruption to Super Rugby after the Christchurch quake earlier this year and it has again provided us with a big challenge as we were dealing with matters beyond our control.
“Thanks to the efforts of our travel partners and the affected teams we have been able to resolve the matter and look forward to a full programme of fixtures this weekend,” Peters said.