It may be some way off but Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson is already looking to the proposed 10-week derby competition even if it poses a grueling schedule.

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New Zealand are in lockdown phase 4 and will be moving a phase lower on Monday. Rugby, though, will only return in phase 1 and it could be a bumper programme with a franchise competition being backed up by the domestic competition.

‘We will just play local games, derby games as we call it, so it will be 10 weeks home and away, and the first (team) – top of the table wins, So it’s pretty brutal,’ Robertson told Will Greenwood’s Podcast on SkySports.

‘If we start June, July, August – we will get the Super in and we will go into the NPC (provincial competition) and just finish later in the year.’

With job cuts and frozen wages grabbing the headlines, the three-time Super Rugby winner is hoping to get his players back onto the park for a refreshing change of tone.

‘That’s the information here at the moment but it all depends on what the government says. We just need to play a bit of footy. Everyone does. We need to get some sport, get our businesses back on track.’

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