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How the coronavirus outbreak has affected rugby union
Like all sports, rugby union is currently getting to grips with effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Postponements and cancellations have hit across the board, and here, the PA news agency looks in detail at the impact.
WATCH: Marcus Smith took on Tiernan O’Halloran in the first of the last sixteen, in our RugbyPass FIFA Pros tournament.
What has definitely been cancelled?
The domestic season in England below the Gallagher Premiership has been ended by the Rugby Football Union, with final league placings in the Greene King IPA Championship settled by a ‘best playing record formula’. The Tyrrells Premier 15 campaign was declared null and void.
The Scottish Rugby Union scrapped the remainder of its 2019-20 domestic games, with Murrayfield chiefs deciding it was “not a reasonable prospect in a safe and practical time frame” to resume and the Welsh Rugby Union cancelled all league and cup competitions for this term, covering all competitions currently under way, as well as matches between Welsh and Scottish clubs due to take place in April. World Rugby called time on its Under-20 Championship, which was scheduled in Italy this summer.
What events have been postponed, and until when?
This season’s Guinness Six Nations was the first major rugby union event to be hit, with four games – Ireland v Italy, Italy v England, France v Ireland and Wales v Scotland all postponed. No rearranged dates have been set, but late October has been mooted. England’s Gallagher Premiership is currently on hold until April 24, with the Guinness PRO14 – featuring teams from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Italy and South Africa – suspended indefinitely.
European rugby chiefs postponed the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup quarter-finals, which had been due to take place early next month, while HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series tournaments in London and Paris were postponed, in addition to the Melrose Sevens. Major competitions across the world have also been affected, highlighted by the southern hemisphere’s Super Rugby tournament – involving teams from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and Argentina – currently being suspended. The postponement of the Olympics affects the men’s and women’s sevens tournaments at the Games. In France the Challenge Cup and Champions Cup knockout stages have also been pushed back to an unspecified date.
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How about England’s tour of Japan?
A much-anticipated return to the scene of England’s recent runners-up World Cup finish is slated for July but seems highly unlikely to go ahead, particularly with the Tokyo Olympics already scrubbed from the calendar. No final decision has been made but an end of April deadline has been agreed between the respective boards and World Rugby. At present the outcome seems a formality.
Is anything likely to remain on in 2020?
That is the big question for rugby chiefs throughout the world. They are dealing in unknown factors at the moment but all current information points to no resumption of competitions any time soon. England’s 2020-21 season is scheduled to start in mid-September, while players will also need a break from games and training before that all gets under way.
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The general feeling is of competitions this term being curtailed or cancelled, although there is a precedent for a Six Nations resumption. In 2001, three of Ireland’s games were postponed following an outbreak of foot and mouth before being played in the September and October of that year. The sport is currently gripped by a huge bout of finger-crossing.
What is the financial impact?
In short, it is due to place an enormous strain at home and abroad. England head coach Eddie Jones has joined RFU executives in taking a 25% pay cut to deal with the short-term impacts, while a host of clubs have had to look at bringing about salary reductions, cost assessments and furloughing measures. The already precarious USA Rugby has filed for bankruptcy and there are concerning issues for Rugby Australia’s financial position.
Only time will tell how the sport recovers.
Press Association
Comments on RugbyPass
Wow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
1 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
13 Go to commentsIf someone like Leo Cullen was in O’Gara’s place I don’t hear Boo-ing. It’s not just that La Rochelle has hurt Leinster and O’Gara is their Irish boss. It’s the needle that he brings and the pantomime activity before the game around pretending that Munster were supporting LaRochelle just because O’Gara is from Cork. That’s dividing Irish provinces just to get an advantage for his French Team. He can F*ck right off with that. BOOOOO! (but not while someone is lying injured)
1 Go to commentsDid the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
1 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
4 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
16 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
16 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
4 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
16 Go to comments