Coronavirus makes New Zealand teams exiles in Australia

 New Zealand's professional rugby league and soccer teams have taken extreme step of basing mselves in Australia to continue playing in face of coronavirus pandemic.

Wellington-based Phoenix have agreed to undergo 14 days of self-isolation in Sydney in order to continue in Australian football's A-League. New Zealand Warriors will base mselves at Kingscliff in New South Wales state to continue competing in National Rugby League, at least through second round this weekend.

NRL and Football Federation Australia have yet to follow or professional sports in suspending ir leagues because of virus outbreak and consequent restrictions on travel and public garings.

All travelers landing in New Zealand are required to complete 14 days of compulsory self-isolation, leing NRL and A-League to rule out playing furr matches in New Zealand for w.

Phoenix, New Zealand's only fully professional soccer team, will arrive Tuesday in Sydney, where y will go into quarantine at a hotel before resuming ir participation in league.

"This is an unprecedented time and extremely complex for sport and society at large," A-League chief executive James Johnson said.

New Zealand Warriors played ir opening match of NRL season in a 20-0 loss at Newcastle, rth of Sydney, on Saturday and decided to remain in Australia to avoid a period of isolation returning to New Zealand and prospect of n being excluded from league

ir decision means players and support staff may be separated from families in New Zealand for weeks if NRL continues to play competition games as planned in empty stiums. Warriors are scheduled to play Canberra Raiders, NRL runners-up last season, on Gold Coast on Saturday.

Two leing players, Peta Hiku and Patrick Herbert, chose to return to New Zealand; Hiku's wife is pregnant and Herbert's wife recently gave birth to ir first child.

"y're big things for se guys and y've decided, with our support, to come home," Warriors chief executive Cameron George told Newstalk ZB rio. "Clearly that's going to have a major impact on our team, losing our starting center and winger. But that's secondary in se circumstances when you're considering family and what's happening."

Warriors' decision, praised by rival teams, has come with logistical challenges. At least 24 players have remained in Australia and supplies are running thin.

" boys only came with eugh gear for a couple of days," Warriors operations manr Dan Floyd told Australian Associated Press. "We only h eugh strapping tape for weekend.

“re's our training equipment, training jerseys for week that we need to get here. Footies (footballs). We only h eugh footies for a captain's run and a game t for a full week of training.”

Floyd said re was also concern about club's players who are still in New Zealand.

“y still need to train. Who is training m? Where are y going to train?" he said. “”re's just so many moving parts that we needed to consider but after initial 24 hours we've got on top of it and feeling a lot better."

(Pic Credit: Pixabay)