SA Rugby statement: COVID-19 cancellations
South Africa Rugby have announced that they have taken the decision to suspend all national team training camps and business travel as part of a raft of measures in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Scheduled Springbok alignment camps, Springbok Men’s and Women’s training camps and the SA Rugby Under-20 preparations have all been suspended until 14 April.
In addition, the SuperSport Rugby Challenge – scheduled to kick off on the weekend of 24/25 April – has been postponed until further notice and the club level Gold Cup competition is being re-assessed with a view to postponement.
The Springboks’ Tests in July (against Scotland and Georgia), Youth Week tournaments and Currie Cup remain as scheduled but will be reviewed in April.
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The latest updates come following the suspension of the Vodacom Super Rugby and Guinness PRO14 international club competitions; the postponement of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series event for women in Stellenbosch, and the cancellation of two Under-20 international events featuring the Junior Springboks.
Members of the Springbok Sevens team – which recently competed in events in Los Angeles and Vancouver – are being tested for the virus having come into contact with the Australian men’s sevens team, two of whom have tested positive for the virus.
Several members of the South Africa Under-20 squad – who had travelled individually from clubs in Europe – will also be tested.
“The president has called on South African society to join together in fighting this pandemic and we will do everything we can to assist that campaign and protect the health of the rugby community,” said Jurie Roux, SA Rugby CEO.
“Rugby is sport with a high degree of physical contact and by its very nature is the opposite of the recommended ‘social distancing’.
“We have therefore suspended all national team activities and instructed managements to put athletes on individual training regimes – away from high risk areas such as gymnasiums – to lower the risk of infection.
“The intention is that they will resume group preparation from 14 April to allow two weeks’ of re-integration before taking on competitive action.”
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Roux said that similar advice was to be given to SA Rugby’s 14 provincial member unions – as well as the Schools Rugby Association and other associate members – with a view to all competitive rugby action ceasing across the country until 25 April at the earliest.
SA Rugby also suspended all international travel until May and all domestic travel until 14 April (unless the latter was business critical). All committee meetings will take place by teleconference. Training and education programmes for coaches, referees and rugby safety (BokSmart) participants would be postponed or delivered by videoconferencing.
Meanwhile Roux said that background planning was underway to resume the Vodacom Super Rugby and Guinness PRO14 competitions before season’s end.
“This is a highly fluid situation and we are planning against certain unknowables, but we have not given up on either competition and are working with partners internationally to resume the competitions within the constraints of health, common sense and any statutory restrictions,” said Roux.
“For the moment the SA Rugby offices will remain open but, like everything else, we will continue to review the situation on a daily basis.
“This is an unprecedented crisis, but we have to continue to work for when the peak has passed us, as, in the words of President Ramaphosa, we will get through this.”
Watch: Sky Sports’ Ross Karl heads to beautiful Mount Maunganui to catch up with Chiefs prop Aidan Ross.
Comments on RugbyPass
Can’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
11 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
11 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
81 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
81 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to comments