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Wasps boss Blackett left fuming over EPCR handling of imperiled Dragons match
Wasps head coach Lee Blackett revealed his side were not made aware that their Heineken Champions Cup opponents Dragons had returned two positive Covid-19 tests until a few hours before kick-off.
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The two teams met on Saturday afternoon in the opening round of the European competition, with Wasps running out 24-8 winners after tries from hooker Tom Cruse, scrum-half Dan Robson and flankers Jack Willis and Thomas Young, plus two conversions from centre Jimmy Gopperth.
Dragons scored a well-worked try from wing Jonah Holmes and a penalty by fly-half Sam Davies in reply, but it was the issue of whether the game should have gone ahead at all which raised the most questions afterwards.
European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) issued a statement during the afternoon to say that after talks with medical experts, and once all contact tracing evidence had been examined, the match could go ahead if Dragons replaced six players in their squad “as a precautionary measure”.
And although Blackett did not want the incident to overshadow a good performance from his side, he questioned why they had not been told of events sooner.
“What has gone on today with Covid tests, you have got to give a lot of credit to our players,” he said.
“We found out about this at two o’clock today. And it amazes me when they found out at 10 o’clock last night that nobody from European Rugby thought to tell us until two o’clock.
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“But for our guys to mentally get their heads back on and to come away with a result, I am really pleased.
“We are all human and when we get the news at two o’clock, we have travelled down with a normal squad and a couple of travelling reserves. We speak to the players about it and they were happy to go.
“It was a distraction but the players were so professional in the way they handled themselves, and I would like to think that going onto the field we were not thinking about that.”
As for the game itself, Blackett said: “You have not got to underestimate how difficult an away win is in Europe, especially getting the bonus point.
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“We are really happy with the result which is what it is in knockout rugby. There were some positive sides to our performance.”
Dragons director of rugby Dean Ryan admitted his team had no option but to get on with the match as best they could, saying: “Changing eight players on a Friday night and Saturday morning is obviously a disruption, but it is part of the landscape.
“This week, we were 100 per cent clear on Tuesday in testing with a review of WRU which received an excellent, but it is part of life in this part of the world.”
Ryan is now hoping his Dragons side can somehow regroup before facing Bordeaux Begles next weekend.
“It is going to be an interesting week coming up because we are faced with the same challenges of isolation,” he said.
Comments on RugbyPass
More useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
22 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
1 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
21 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
1 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
13 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
21 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
13 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
22 Go to commentsVern challenging this Blues side might be the edge they need to fulfill their potential. Convincing results from strong D and strong carries are hard to argue against.
1 Go to commentsLove seems to add a strong back field defense with speed to close the gap and tackle to his ability to attack, kick and pass (an accurate long pass). This sets him an edge over some of the other names - JRK in particular. Has to be said that Jordan and Stevenson have also been exposed defensively while Love has yet to face test match intensity. Spoilt for choice.
1 Go to commentsHe’s strung together a few strong seasons, I’d like to see him in the ABs and build some depth along with Reiko and ALB. Levi Aumua hasn’t taken the step we hoped to see but time yet.
2 Go to commentsWhere has our good friend Pecos gone!? Similar place to the Crusaders D, the abyss.
4 Go to commentsNice piece Nick. I haven’t seen much of the brumbies this year so will keep my powder dry on charlie, but clearly has the speed and footwork to be damaging in space. Similar to Samu, I’d worry about the size of our pack if the likes of Mcreight and Cale were in the b/row together. Maybe Cale could play a similar finisher role like Samu did for Rennie’s wallabies. Has Cale leapfrogged wilson in your eyes? He obviously has the lineout, but harry probably better (although not great) in the physical stuff and also has great hands in the loose. You’d have to say mcreight and valetini are shoe-ins at 7/8, so the question becomes who matches best with them at 6 and on the bench. I don’t know if he has a high enough ceiling, but id love to see wright given a shot based on how much bad luck he has had with injuries. He may also fit that no-nonsense graft/work rate irish approach…? If schmidt wants size and a 4/6 tweener then I’d probably pick Uru. On the bench I’d have no idea, Wilson if you want to give valetini a rest, and maybe hanigan/wright/uru as 6 replacements.
21 Go to commentsWho the heck is Billy Fulton?
13 Go to commentsCale has all the potential no doubt. So has Harry Wilson except for his dumb arse coach over the last few years who told him just to run at brick walls all the time. Valentini would be devastating at 6. As he was until some idiot thought oh yeah, move our best player to another position. Not mentioning any flightless or thank you names of course. I very much dislike claiming one player is the saviour, because injuries are so prevalent in the game these days as the players are bigger and faster, so the discussion should be who are at least the best two players in one position. For me it’s Harry Wilson and Cale at 8 at the moment with Valentini or Hooper from the Brumbies at 6. Great options. Seru Uru should be in the reserves too. A game changer.
21 Go to commentsScott Barrett is a card waiting to happen, Cane has been out with injury as well as playing in Japan, I think they’ll go with in-Japan-but-still-the-man Savea. Samisoni Taukeaho will be Captain after 2027, so he might get some Captain minutes against an Italy or Japan.
13 Go to commentsDissapointed that after 7 years Crusaders could not have found a coach that believed their system and improved on it. What was he expecting?
6 Go to comments