Australia want to host Rugby Championship "hub"
SHOWS: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (JUNE 2, 2020) (AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION - Broadcasters: NO USE AUSTRALIA Digital: NO USE AUSTRALIA .COM.AU INTERNET SITES / ANY INTERNET SITE OF ANY AUSTRALIAN BASED MEDIA ORGANISATIONS OR MOBILE PLATFORMS / AUSTRALIAN NVO CLIENTS / SMH.COM.AU / NEWS.COM.AU) 1.
INTERIM CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF RUGBY AUSTRALIA, ROB CLARKE, ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE 2.
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(SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERIM CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF RUGBY AUSTRALIA, ROB CLARKE, SAYING: "We're working with our SANZAAR partners around what the TRC looks like and it is condensed.
That said everybody is committed to try and play a full TRC.
And we're exploring with the Australian government whether that can be hubbed here in Australia and we fly in all of the SANZAAR partners and they are in a training bubble and then we can quarantine effectively and then play a competition.
So that's what we're exploring.
There will be an extended Bledisloe Cup and we're well advanced with our discussions with our New Zealand colleagues on that." 4.
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(SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERIM CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF RUGBY AUSTRALIA, ROB CLARKE, SAYING: "It's a great product, it gains a lot of attention and we feel at least a four-game series is something that can work into the calendar this year and will work both for them and for us." 6.
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(SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERIM CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF RUGBY AUSTRALIA, ROB CLARKE, SAYING: "Well the priorities are getting back to playing rugby.
So everything is focused on at the community level, getting the community game played again.
And hopefully from June onwards, we'll start seeing that or later in June.
And then getting our professional level played from July." 8.
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CLARKE LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE STORY: Rugby Australia is in talks with the government about allowing New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina's teams to enter the country and be based in a "hub" for a condensed Rugby Championship later in the year.
After a two-month lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19, Australian authorities have allowed sports to restart domestic competition but international fixtures remain in doubt due to travel curbs and border controls.
SANZAAR, comprised of partner rugby unions in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina, is the governing body of the four-nation Rugby Championship and Super Rugby.
Australian and New Zealand officials have spoken for weeks of opening up a "trans-Tasman bubble" of restriction-free travel between the two countries, which have reduced COVID-19 infections to a trickle.
Rugby Australia (RA) interim CEO Rob Clarke confirmed RA was trying to extend the annual Bledisloe Cup series between the Wallabies and All Blacks to four tests from the usual three.
(Production: James Redmayne)