The All Blacks players’ game time will be monitored during this year’s Super Rugby campaign.
New Zealand’s head of high performance, Mike Anthony, confirmed that the national team players will have two games off, must not play more than six matches in a row and will not be allowed to play more than 180 minutes during the first three rounds of the competition.
It is a formula that worked for them last year and Anthony says they will be sticking with it in 2020.
He tells Stuff NZ: “If they’re five or so minutes [over the time in the first round] because somebody gets dinged, we’re mindful of allowing some flexibility, but we’ve been really clear that the last thing we want is a guy coming in week one and hitting 80 minutes straight off the bat.”
“What we’re trying to create is not just about an outcome for the All Blacks for later on, it’s actually a win for the Super Rugby clubs, that they have those guys performing at the back end.”