Highlanders head coach Aaron Mauger knows that rugby is fighting for its survival and says 'everyone has got to play their part'.

Highlanders head coach Aaron Mauger has delivered a much-needed dose of realism to the deep pay cuts coming in rugby, declaring that players and coaches are simply fortunate to be in an industry that has a chance of surviving the coronavirus crisis.

"In our context we're lucky there's been a lot of good work done in the past," Mauger told Stuff. "We're still in a position to be talking about future competitions.

"There's a lot more less fortunate, whose businesses are going under.

"In terms of requests for people to take pay cuts, it's the least we can do to help our game survive, which has been so good to all of us over the years."

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The savage economic damage caused by coronavirus is becoming clearer each day, with NZME taking the axe to Radio Sport on Monday.

It is understood further brutal cuts to the NZME sports department are imminent and they clearly won't be the last in the sports media.

In the broader economy, Air New Zealand has also announced plans to cut a staggering 30 per cent of its workforce in the next 12 months. And against that backdrop, whatever pay cuts New Zealand's rugby players and coaches take, will pale into comparison against the financial distress of many other New Zealanders.

"I think it's a no-brainer," Mauger said of the cuts. "Everyone has been asked to because it's the best way of helping our game survive.

PHIL WALTER/GETTY IMAGES When Highlanders coach Aaron Mauger returned from Argentina and into isolation, he and his wife took the hard decision to send their eldest two children away to stay with friends.

"Everyone has got to play their part and I don't think there has been any issue from players or coaches.

"We've all been asked to take a cut and if we don't do that the game doesn't survive.

"There is no professional game in the country.

"Everyone is playing their part to make sure we've still got a structure, to make sure we can keep doing what we love and have something to go do when we get to the other side of this isolation period."

GETTY IMAGES Aaron Smith scores during the round five match between the Highlanders and the Rebels at Forsyth Barr Stadium in February.

Highlanders players, coaches and staff who were on tour in Argentina were already in self-isolation, a14-day period that ends on Tuesday.

When Mauger returned from Buenos Aires, he and he his wife took the difficult decision of sending their two eldest children to stay with friends as a precaution, while they kept their two youngest at home with them.

The family was reunited when the national lockdown was announced and Mauger said he and the rest of the Highlanders were in good health.

"There's still a fair amount of uncertainty about what the next stage looks like," Mauger said.

"Everything is dictated by what you can and can't do, which is stipulated by the Government.

"The longer we go on without any team conditioning and rugby conditioning, the more time is going to be required to get our guys fit and up to speed again before any competition resumes, or a new competition starts up.

"The All Blacks' trainer, Nic Gill, along with the franchises through the conditioning coaches, are meeting at the moment.

​"But the worst thing we could do is finish isolation and then expect the guys to go out there and play a couple of weeks later.

"That would be dangerous. We'd put them at risk and the product would be really average."

Mauger was also careful to put rugby's role in context during a national - and global - crisis, but said it could yet play a part in helping New Zealanders recover when life returns to some sense of normality.

"Everybody in the rugby community is keen to play footy. Players, staff, fans, viewers on TV, broadcasters. There's so many people invested in it.

"It's a big part of our culture. It's a big part of what pumps the blood through our country.

"It's certainly a motivation for a lot of people involved in the game to have a product to come back to and make sure we do our best to make sure it's a good one."

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