Come on in for 'The Lockdown', a taste of life inside the bubble Vodafone Warriors-style.
After returning from Australia on March 23, the club’s NRL players and staff finished their 14 days in self-isolation this week to join the rest of the country which has been in Covid-19 lockdown since March 26.
As they wait to find out what shape the NRL season will take when – or if – it resumes, captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and his players have been working with the club’s football staff on individual training programmes. Despite the challenges they're faced with, they’re doing all they can to be as well-prepared as possible.
This week 'The Lockdown' - in association with Flava - touched base with some of them to find out what their bubble is like - what they’re doing, how they’re adapting and how they’re coping.
RTS has a message for everyone from his yard and tries to impress with his basketball skills, JTB (Jamayne Taunoa-Brown) dials in from Melbourne and tells us he has also been doing a bit on his side interest in music, Gerard Beale takes us on a tour of his home and Kodi Nikorima gives us a day in the life experience. Plus, there’s a cameo appearance from new father Patrick Herbert.
We also hear from our old mate the Mad Butcher, Sir Peter Leitch. The Vodafone Warriors’ 19th man is hunkering down on Waiheke Island where he gives us a look at some memorabilia in his man cave and has a stern message for everyone about obeying the lockdown rules.
And Vodafone Warriors Canterbury Cup coach Justin Morgan crosses to us from Lennox Head near Byron Bay in New South Wales where he wasn’t just in self-isolation but what ended up being an experience akin to solitary confinement. He initially joined Gerard Beale, Agnatius Paasi, Josh Curran, Jazz Tevaga and Herbert there but they returned to New Zealand the day after he arrived. So, a lonely ‘Morgs’ had the whole place to himself. He takes us around his temporary base and gives us an insight into what he endured.
During the week Vodafone Warriors players have popped up through media outlets, notably veteran forward Adam Blair, who appeared on The Project on Three about his involvement in Amped, a new show airing on Three on weekdays which touches base with all manner of New Zealanders to see what they’re doing in their bubbles. Blair and his family featured in the show on Thursday. It premiered on Wednesday and airs daily at 11.30am. Look out for it.
Head coach Stephen Kearney, Blake Green, Tohu Harris, RTS, Herbert and Peta Hiku have also been in demand from the media through Zoom, Skype or Facetime interviews both here and in Australia.
And Harris - together with three-year-old son Harlan - featured in a Photosport shoot as the big second rower trained in his backyard.
