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SA hooker's 'pretty weird' American experience

San Diego Legion hooker Dean Muir and his wife Lisa arrived back in South Africa on Monday after the cancellation of Major League Rugby (MRL).

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The Durban-born former Stormers No 2 sat down for an interview with RugbyRocks' Simon Borchardt:

Have you guys had to self-quarantine?

Yes, we're back home in Durban and in quarantine for 14 days. We haven't seen our family or friends yet. That's tough but we'd rather be on the safe side.

Your timing was good, with South Africa going into lockdown!

Yes, it is. We flew from San Diego to Atlanta and then on to Johannesburg and Durban. We thought the planes would be quite empty but they were packed. When we asked an air hostess why this was the case, she said it was the last flight from the USA to South Africa. So we were pretty lucky.

At what stage of the MLR season did you realise the coronavirus situation was becoming quite serious?

When we went to Austin, we had a big meeting called by the owners. Everyone was there - the front office staff, the players, coaches, etc. They sat us down and told us the virus was getting quite bad and the league was going to be suspended for three weeks after which we'd pick things up again. They initially said we'd have a week off and then start training again. But after the week off, we were told to stay at home as there would be no training for the next six to eight weeks. Then the rest of the season was cancelled. It was pretty weird... it all happened in the space of two weeks.

Were you given the option to stay in San Diego?

Yes, we were. But the owners' main priority was to get the players back to their families before countries went into lockdown. We wanted to come back home.

How are you and Lisa keeping busy while in quarantine?

We're watching a lot of Netflix! It’s going to be pretty boring but we have to sit tight and hopefully this virus passes over soon rather than later.

- RugbyRocks.com

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