Published on : 09/01/2021 – 17:53
The government recommendation to postpone the upcoming Franco-British matches, in order to curb the spread of the Covid-19 variant, casts the shadow of a “Frexit” over the European Cups and the Six Nations Tournament.
The European Cup and the European Challenge are already in the dark. Due to the recommendation of the French government to postpone the upcoming Franco-British matches in order to limit the spread of the Covid-19 variant, the Top 14 formations will not participate in the 3e and 4e days of the group stage, scheduled for the weekends of January 15 and 22.
The National Rugby League (LNR) will indeed comply with the request of the Ministry of Sports which wrote to it, Saturday January 9, “to invite it to postpone the next meetings including French clubs, in accordance with the wishes expressed by several French professional rugby clubs in recent days, “according to a statement sent to AFP.
In the European Cup, Stade Toulouse had to go to England to face Exeter, title holders, before receiving the Irish province of Ulster. Same story for Clermont (Munster, Bristol), Lyon (Glasgow Warriors, Gloucester) or Racing 92 (Harlequins, Connacht) …
“We will show adaptation, resignation and resilience to be able to try to continue both the championship in the best conditions and then I hope to resume the European Cup at another period”, assured the president Toulouse to AFP.
“There are four weekends left, there is plenty to recompose this competition and bring it to an end”, he added while the organizers are studying different scenarios to complete a competition suspended after a 2020 edition already truncated.
French clubs already affected
This week, various meetings between the EPCR, organizer of continental competitions, and the various championships involved had made it possible to strengthen the health protocol, considered too light by the Top 14 clubs.
According to information from AFP, the organizers had assured want to follow the protocol applied in France, where the teams are tested three days before the matches, instead of six in the two European cups.
However, these advances are insufficient for the French government in view of the health situation in the United Kingdom with the progression of the British variant on a European scale. A situation deemed “worrying” by the French state.
This new variant of Sars-CoV-2 has an increased transmissibility compared to strains currently circulating in France, thus significantly increasing the risk of contamination. Any travel or stay in the United Kingdom is therefore strongly discouraged.
After Challenge Cup meetings on British territory at the end of December, several people with this variant have been identified within the Aviron bayonnais and the Pau Section, specifies the Ministry of Sports.
The clusters that have appeared in these clubs can generate significant chains of transmission, adds the supervisory body.
The Six Nations Tournament threatened
The Tournament, which is due to start on February 6, is also in the balance. “A specific meeting on the Six Nations Tournament will be held (…) at the beginning of the week,” said the Ministry of Sports.
Rugby is not the only sport concerned since the ministry explained to AFP that it had initiated a census of all the sports events scheduled in France in the coming weeks including participants from the United Kingdom as well as the travel forecasts of sports delegations. French women on British soil.
“From Monday, the ministry will hold talks with the sports federations and event organizers concerned,” added the ministry.
Almost a year after the appearance of Covid-19 in Europe, French sport has not yet emerged from the bell under which the coronavirus pandemic has placed it.
With AFP
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