New Zealand’s rugby league team, the Warriors, have relocated to Australia for the winter so that they can participate in the rugby league season. They went to Australia in May and went through the quarantine process. They are now based in Tamworth, New South Wales. No doubt they miss their families, and perhaps this is why they have been on a losing streak. Their coach, Stephen Kearney, was fired last week and replaced with a new interim coach, Todd Payten. Payten was the assistant coach before. However, this does not seem to have helped, as they did even more badly in this weekend’s game, losing 50 to 6 to a team called The Storm. At this point, they have played 7 games in the Australian Rugby League Tournament (the NRL) and have won two games. They are number 14 in the league rankings, where the bottom ranking is 16. Todd is trying to encourage the team to toughen up.
Other sports teams in New Zealand are staying in the country at this stage. There will be national tournaments in rugby union, netball and basketball. However, New Zealand only has one rugby league team, so it was necessary for them to travel to Australia. Furthermore, Australia needed a sixteenth team to make up a perfect league tournament.
Vocabulary:
relocated: moved to a different place
rugby league: a kind of rugby game with teams of 13
rugby union: a kind of rugby game with teams of 15
no doubt: of course
tournament: a series of sports games held in order to find a champion
ranking: a list in order of value. Usually the best in a ranking is number 1.
based: If you are staying in a place because of work, you can say that you are based in this place. It may be that your home is somewhere else.
coach: a sports teacher
a losing streak: a trend of losing
toughen up: become strong
losing 50 to 6 to a team called The Storm: it means the Warriors lost the game because they only got 6 points and The Storm got 50 points. The Warriors lost to The Storm. They lost by 50 to 6.
at this stage: right now (this suggests that things might change in the future)