Rugby: Chiefs pair Anton Lienert-Brown and Damian McKenzie making the most of lockdown together

While life for our top rugby players has taken a turn, keeping a sense of normality is proving crucial, as they see out the national coroanvirus lockdown.

But with their Hamilton home the only place they're going, Anton Leinert-Brown and Damian McKenzie have had to slightly take matters into their own hands.

The pair are constantly pushing each other, be it on the golf course, maintenance in the backyard or even remembering their high school rugby days - at rival schools.

"It could get bad and I could bring out a few truths about Lienert-Brown," McKenzie told Newshub.

But behind the jokes, the national lockdown is serious business for Lienert-Brown and McKenzie - it's a chance to prioritise both their physical and mental wellbeing.

"We've got a couple of challenges we're doing every day - we're doing 100 passes, 50 kicks a day, read 30 pages of a book," Lienert-Brown told Newshub.

In the absence of their usual training, the Chiefs teammates are trying to keep their weeks as structured as possible, to keep a sense of normality in a situation that is abhorrently abnormal.

"I guess, if I wasn't to structure my days, I wouldn't know what I was achieving," Lienert-Brown adds. "I think, at this time, it's really important that we are feeling like we're achieving things."

With rugby off the cards for now, those achievements are limited to the home gym and, maybe more importantly, the home driving range.

"If we could finish rugby and just play golf for a living, that'd be nice," McKenzie told Newshub.

McKenzie has a few things to work on, before getting to that, if his showing at the New Zealand Open is anything to go by. 

"It was the bright lights, mate... they got to me," McKenzie told Newshub. "Honestly, I crumbled."

With Lienert-Brown on his bag, the pair comfortably missed the cut, so it's probably best if rugby comes back sooner rather than later.