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THE Western Force have been given the most brutal flying schedule of any team in next year's Super 15 rugby tournament, with an itinerary likely to establish the Perth-based side as the most travelled team in world sport.
The Flying Force, appropriately sponsored by an airline, will take jetlag to new heights as the team crosses 11 time zones from Cape Town in the west to Wellington in the east, flying a staggering 68,000km over just 20 weeks.
No team in world sport is known to match this feat of flying, which illustrates one reason why the Force has battled with injuries and struggled to make the Super rugby playoffs in its six years of existence.
The only team in world sport known to have as tough a travelling schedule is the American NHL team Dallas Stars, which before the cancellation of two months' play because of a labour dispute, would have flown 79,761km.
However, that would have been spread out over a six-month period spanning four time zones in the US.
The Raiders, who will fly 45,907km, have the worst travel schedule of any NFL team, primarily because of their location in Oakland on the west coast of the United States.
Apart from travelling to airports and sitting in terminals waiting for flights, the Force are scheduled to spend at least 86 hours in aircraft during the Super Rugby season. This is more than twice the time they will spend on the playing field, with 32 hours of matches scheduled over 16 home-and-away matches, excluding the playoffs.
The travelling schedule of the Force represents a 76 per cent increase on the 38,680km that the Melbourne-based Rebels will fly this season as the Australian team flying the fewest miles. The Rebels are scheduled to spend 54 hours in aircraft during the tournament - 32 hours less than the Force.
Even the Cape Town-based Stormers, the most western located team in South Africa, will not fly as many kilometres as the Force. The South African side will fly 41,000km and is scheduled to spend 43 hours airborne.
Similarly, New Zealand's Highlanders, based in Dunedin in the South Island, will fly only 35,512km and spend 48 hours at altitude, almost half as much time and distance as the Force. The Auckland-based Blues will travel 41,000km and spend 57 hours in aircraft.
The Force's travel schedule has been made even tougher considering that after their opening away match to the Rebels in Melbourne, they will fly almost 12,000km to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to play the Southern Kings.
The Perth-side will also fly twice to New Zealand with four weeks for away matches to the Hurricanes in Wellington and the Crusaders in Christchurch, as opposed to having back-to-back fixtures scheduled in New Zealand.
http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/rug...-1226528074807