It's game on in Tai Tokerau, where rugby clubs and Māori health providers are teaming up to make Northland the first province with 90 percent of people vaccinated against Covid-19.
A new initiative wants players to 'Take Two for the Team', with every jab earning $10 towards their sports club.
Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers
The programme has 24 community rugby clubs taking part so far, as well as Kerikeri high school - discussions with other codes are underway, including rugby league and hockey.
Ngāti Hine Health Trust is one of eight Māori health providers helping cover the programme costs. Chief executive Geoff Milner said he wants Northland to be a leader in vaccine rates, rather than a middle of the table rohe.
The programme helps tap into the competitive nature of some of Northland's sporting talent, but Milner said keeping the initiative fun is important.
"Take Two for the Team is about the team, not just yourself. Pick a team mate, get your van, wear your boots and your sprigs and your studs into the vaccination clinic - and keep it light."
He said people should make it a team approach rather than an individual health message
Rugby for Life is leading the programme - trustee Martin Cleave said they were approaching the vaccines in a grassroots and community-focused way.
"Club rugby is such a force for good in our communities, many of which are really isolated and hard to reach, so this initiative is a win-win-win.
"It is those beers at the club, it is that community stuff, it is that post-First XV game, it is the grudge match on the Saturday when it's like: "Hey, have you taken two for the team for the bro?'"
He said Māori and Pasifika make up 63 percent of the region's club rugby players aged 12 years and older, and they would be the players the programme is mainly targeting.
"There are 4,896 Māori and Pasifika club rugby players in Northland across all age groups. If just three members from each whānau are vaccinated, along with each of the 2,843 players over 12, that would lead to over 17,500 vaccinations," he said.
Cleave hopes the payments will be a shot in the arm for Northland's vaccine rates, ambitiously targeting a total of 29,000 players and their families to be immunised by Christmas.
Stacey Tupe from Northland's women's Kauri Rugby team. Photo: Supplied
Stacey Tupe has been playing for the Northland women's Kauri Rugby team for the past three years. She said she would be ready to go in getting the jab and cash for her club.
"It's a hard conversation with the vaccine so this positive twist allows you to give back and be a little bit, I guess, happy about what you're doing and I know that the sporting community would really benefit from the added money coming in.
Tupe had put a lot of thought into the vaccines kaupapa - and is ultimately getting hers to protect her whānau and her four-year-old son.
She hopes the programme would kick-start conversations in sports teams that might have been lacking.
"With our team, we are potentially travelling if we are to win our semi-final so it's just kind of being mindful of those and being in different regions... making sure that we are protecting ourselves."
Stacey Tupe from Northland's women's Kauri Rugby team. Photo: Supplied
Northland has recorded 57,718 double Pfizer doses and 100,727 single doses - that's just over 52 percent of the Northland District Health Board population of 193,170 receiving one vaccination.
Nationally, 63 percent of the country has received one dose.
So as vaccination rates ramp up, it is Northland versus Covid-19. Game on.
