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'You can't blame Sale for saying we can fulfil a fixture'
Exeter boss Rob Baxter has refused to blame Sale for the chaotic situation that resulted in Gallagher Premiership officials being left until Wednesday morning before finally being in a position to confirm the exact pairings for next Saturday’s 2019/20 semi-finals.
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With Sale claiming in the run-up to last Sunday’s postponement against Worcester that they were still capable of fielding a matchday 23 free of Covid despite 19 positive cases at the club, Premiership officials were forced to rearrange the match until three days later rather than cancel it there and then as it would have been against the league’s own regulations.
Instead, they had to accept Sale’s standpoint and the compromise was another round of testing prior to Wednesday’s rearranged match.
The latest testing batch revealed eight further positive tests for coronavirus among the Sale squad, bringing the tally to 27, and it was only then, nine hours before Wednesday night’s planned kick-off, that the game was officially cancelled and the Premiership could confirm Exeter will host Bath while Wasps will face Bristol next Saturday.
Rather than criticise Sale for the delay, however, Exeter boss Baxter was sympathetic to the Manchester club regarding what had happened. “The regulations are now deemed not to have covered enough bases, but the reality is that this is one game where the regulations have not been able to really deal with the scenario of every game that has been played.
BREAKING https://t.co/9QhwkAkiHc
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 7, 2020
“There has been an awful lot of games where the regulations have been fine (52 matches with just two cancellations). Not just the regulations around Covid but the regulations around game minutes for players, squad rotation, how many times you can start games etc. On the whole, as a set of regulations into a completely unknown quantity, they have pretty much done the job.
“What is highlighted now is there probably needed to be another line or another paragraph of regulation saying that something about multiple outbreaks of whatever number and a decision will get made over the cancellation, postponement or awarding of points.
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“That was never in the regulations, so all of a sudden you can’t blame Sale for saying we can fulfil a fixture. That is the reality, that is what the regulation says. Now we might need to add in that paragraph. I suspect that will happen before we start the new season but to turn around now in hindsight, you can’t have everything.
“Has it been frustrating waiting until Wednesday to find out who we are playing? Of course, it has. It’s ridiculous to say it hasn’t been. Is it anybody’s fault and is there anything PRL could necessarily have done to change the process? In hindsight, yes, but hindsight doesn’t work like that.”
"This is devastating for Sale"https://t.co/UNgxPnCU9e
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 7, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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.
30 Go to comments