Wellington's cold, wet weather on Monday offered a taste of what might be ahead for teams in Super Rugby Aotearoa starting next month.
Traditional Super Rugby has tended to be played mainly in the better weather conditions of late summer and autumn with playoffs generally the only games played in what might be called the depth of the New Zealand winter.
But with this year's truncated competition, in the wake of Covid-19 interruptions to the season, sides are possibly going to have to navigate their way through more wet weather rugby than they have been used to.
While Super Rugby has been played in the wet before, many of the games have been played in night conditions, but this competition is being played in daylight hours, partly to allow teams to return home almost immediately after games.
Hurricanes assistant coach Chris Gibbes said, "We realise we are going into winter and we are going to be playing games in winter [conditions]. So you don't have to be a rocket scientist to realise you are going to have to control the pill a lot more and make sure you're playing at the right end of the park in the winter weather.
"That will factor into our planning and discussions tactically as we go along but at the moment we are just making sure we are getting our bodies ready to go," he said.
One advantage would be that from his own experience it was easier to manage wet weather play in daylight than it was at night.
Gibbes said the side was still working into their contact build-up.
"We've been focusing around technical [work], getting guys back into the slot of it, the correct skill we want from them and now it is about adding a little more intensity to things.
"Also, there is a lot of systems stuff we are putting back in place and some of it takes a little longer than others for the boys to remember," he said.
As they make the required adjustments to Covid-related responses, Gibbes said the changed demands on the players were not difficult, just different.
He said with the difficulties that other people were going through around New Zealand, the players had to be open to change.
Part of that was the prospect for away games of flying in on the day, going straight to stadiums and then spending four or five hours before playing. They were working through those situations and he was sure the side would cope.
All Blacks loose forward Ardie Savea was closer to being able to return to play.
"Ardie is working his way back, he's still not 100 percent where he needs to be but he's in pretty good form."
He expected the side would have a near-complete squad available for selection for their first game, against the Blues in Auckland.
That would be important because he felt it would be the side best able to utilise all elements of their squad who would go close to winning the competition.