Welsh derby becomes 22nd URC match in five rounds to get postponed

There continues to be little light at the end of the tunnel for the massively virus-affected United Rugby Championship as this weekend’s URC Welsh derby between Scarlets and Dragons has become the 22nd game in five rounds of fixtures to get called off.

The revamped tournament managed to get through its opening rounds in September and October relatively unscathed but the five-country event has been hit hard since the emergence of the omicron variant resulted in the postponement of URC matches in South Africa involving Cardiff, Munster, Scarlets and Zebre after those four teams had arrived in the southern hemisphere to play.

That resulted in a quarantine nightmare for those teams that travelled and the league has struggled to regain lost momentum since then. Aside from rescheduling this weekend’s originally planned round ten games in Europe for the four South African franchises, the Welsh derby featuring Dragons at Parc y Scarlets has now also fallen by the wayside. 

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Benji’s back to tell us about his try-scoring exploits in Dubai, Johnnie’s navigated travel chaos to make it home for Christmas and we look back on a weekend where politics played its part and Castres were the only French side in action in the Champions Cup. We assess whether the whole of Round 2 should have been postponed as the Top 14 sides wanted, whether there’s going to be an asterisk by the name of the winner once more and what’s next for European rugby this season. Plus, there’s some hot coaching gossip and we pick our MEATER Moment of the Week…
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Joyeux Noel & The European Dilemma | Le French Rugby Podcast | Episode 11

Benji’s back to tell us about his try-scoring exploits in Dubai, Johnnie’s navigated travel chaos to make it home for Christmas and we look back on a weekend where politics played its part and Castres were the only French side in action in the Champions Cup. We assess whether the whole of Round 2 should have been postponed as the Top 14 sides wanted, whether there’s going to be an asterisk by the name of the winner once more and what’s next for European rugby this season. Plus, there’s some hot coaching gossip and we pick our MEATER Moment of the Week…
Use the code FRENCHPOD10 at checkout for 10% off any full price item at Meater.com

A URC statement read: “The game was due to take place on Saturday in Llanelli. However, a number of positive Covid-19 cases within the Dragons playing squad have been reported by the region. 

“The URC medical advisory group has liaised with the region and having considered all the facts have deemed that the fixture cannot go ahead as scheduled. The United Rugby Championship will now consider available dates to reschedule the game.”

It’s the latest setback in a troubled period for the revamped tournament which had five recent round eight and four round nine matches postponed due to the virus, meaning a total of 22 matches in five rounds have had to be postponed.

Some of those matches have been rescheduled but the increasing number of games getting called off has sparked fears that the tournament might not be able to be fully completed in its current 18-round format before the playoffs.