Wests Tigers ready to train in Auckland - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Wests Tigers ready to train in Auckland

By David Beniuk 13/06/2011 07:57:16 PM Comments (0)

The Wests Tigers have made plans to train in Auckland this week if the volcanic ash cloud continues to prevent flights between New Zealand and Australia.

Players, staff and officials from the NRL club were unable to return to Sydney on their scheduled Qantas flight on Monday and expect to be grounded until at least Tuesday thanks to the eruption in Chile.

"At this stage we're expecting to fly back tomorrow," Tigers chief executive Stephen Humphreys told AAP from Auckland on Monday.

"The reality is that's what they're saying for now but that could all change."

The Tigers completed their scheduled recovery session in Auckland on Monday after a remarkable, Benji Marshall-led comeback 26-22 win over the Warriors at Mt Smart Stadium the day before.

"There's not much we can do, it's kind of out of our control so they're filling in their time as best they can," Humphreys said.

"The plan was to do the recovery on the way to the airport so we just stuck with our plan today.

"We just did a bit of a longer session than we otherwise would have done, as much to fill in a bit of time as anything.

The Tigers' next opponents, Melbourne, are not expected to experience any trouble leaving the Victorian capital in time for Sunday's clash at Leichhardt Oval but Tim Sheens' men could begin their preparation for the crucial match in New Zealand.

"It's a bit difficult to plan for all the contingencies," Humphreys said.

"If for some reason we can't get out tomorrow then we have made some tentative arrangements for training but we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves.

"We've got some relationships with some people over here so that we can work those things through pretty easily.

"The Warriors certainly offered their assistance as well, which was appreciated."

The Tigers did manage to get a seat on an Emirates flight home for captain Robbie Farah, who has been called into the NSW State of Origin squad as 19th man.

"There aren't too many seats but we were able to get one for him," Humphreys said.

"He definitely wanted to be there just in case he's required."

Queensland 18th man Jacob Lillyman also managed to get a flight after earlier being stranded at Auckland airport and joined his Maroon teammates in Coolum.

The airline strife also affected referees, the Toyota Cup and media commentators.

The five-man refereeing team, headed by Gavin Badger and Tony de las Heras, for Monday night's clash between the Storm and the Sydney Roosters was forced to fly Albury and drive the remaining 320km to Melbourne.

However, the NRL had to cancel the Toyota Cup match, with the Roosters under-20 team unable to board their flight to Melbourne on Monday.

Triple M and Nine Network commentator Andrew Johns remained stuck in Auckland.

Nine will be sweating on Johns and co-commentator Phil Gould making it back for Wednesday night's telecast of State of Origin II from ANZ Stadium.

"It's very frustrating, but what can you do," Johns said.

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