World Rugby suggest it may be a long wait before fans are allowed back in stadiums
Rugby is facing a devastating financial blow after medical guidelines released by the sport’s governing body stated matches should be played behind closed doors until a vaccine exists for Covid-19.
With England’s Rugby Football Union already projecting to lose £50 million because of the pandemic, the prospect of the long-term absence of large-scale crowds from major venues would plunge the sport in England – and across the world – into crisis. It is expected that it could be up to 18 months before a vaccine is freely available.
And the difficulty of even returning behind closed doors was also laid bare in the report, which stated that upon returning for training players will initially need to observe social distancing of 1.5 metres, wear gloves and face masks, and refrain from making any physical contact such as hugging or handshakes.
All players will also be asked to fill in a daily questionnaire for symptoms of Covid-19 and will be required to have their temperature checked before entering the clubhouse or training facility. Anyone with a temperature higher than 37.5 centigrade will be sent home.
New Zealand Rugby chairman Brent Impey said yesterday that he had hopes of a return to action with New Zealand’s five Super Rugby teams in mid-June but was waiting on government guidelines to be revealed under Level 2 before they could make a decision.
In the UK, Premiership Rugby’s ambition of staging the remainder of the 2019/20 season in the middle of the year also appeared to recede after World Rugby advised that competitive rugby should not resume until national governments allow public gatherings of up to 250 people.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that phase two of the Government’s coronavirus strategy will be announced next week, which is likely to be limited to small social gatherings.
Compiled by medical experts Éanna Falvey, Prav Mathema, Mary Horgan, Martin Raftery, the World Rugby guidelines are being issued to all unions who are expected to create a framework for a return to play in conjunction with their own government’s advice on Public Gathering Restrictions, Social Distancing, Travel Restrictions (PST). This will then be passed to all clubs, amateur and professional.
Under World Rugby’s projection, “normal competition” would not resume until after a vaccine has been introduced.
The first stage would be a return to rugby training. Even then training would be staggered between groups of five or ten players, depending on government advice, who should be assigned their own specific coach to avoid overlap between groups.
The guidelines state: “Where possible, all players and staff should wear face masks to prevent possible spread from asymptomatic, infected players.” Players are also advised to travel alone to and from training and should shower and eat at home.
Clubs will also be required to conduct a deep clean after each session. “Facilities would remain unavailable until cleaning can be completed.”
The next stage would be for full squad training once respective governments allow gatherings of up to 50 people. However, full-contact training should be planned in consultation with local public health authorities and will need PST to allow “close contact” or a specific Government exemption. Unions and clubs will need to demonstrate an ability to “comprehensively screen, test and contact trace”to reach that stage.
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World Rugby are conscious that coaches may be tempted to ignore or bypass their advice warning: “Your actions will speak far louder than words, and will affect the health of yourself, your family, colleagues and friends. For coaches, the temptation to progress beyond the measures permitted will be an issue.”
World Rugby recommends that competitive matches should only resume once there is an agreement between union, clubs, competition organisers, coaches and players. Unions are advised to appoint a Covid-19 Manager to present the return to training and matches with the government and manage the communication across the clubs and competitions. The manager will also be asked to conduct a risk assessment for when matches can resume.
Those first matches are “likely to be over short distances” and will not include overnight stays. Players are advised to travel individually by car. Once competitive rugby successfully resumes within a country then international rugby could take place providing the countries share “relaxed border control measures”.
The prospect of England hosting southern-hemisphere countries later in the year appears remote with trans-continental matches appearing as the penultimate stage of rugby’s return to normal competition. That means the All Blacks highly-anticipated clash with England, their first meeting since the World Cup, would be cancelled.
Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments