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How the coronavirus outbreak has affected rugby union

Conor Murray winces following Munster's loss to Racing 92

Like all sports, rugby union is currently getting to grips with effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Postponements and cancellations have hit across the board, and here, the PA news agency looks in detail at the impact.

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What has definitely been cancelled?

The domestic season in England below the Gallagher Premiership has been ended by the Rugby Football Union, with final league placings in the Greene King IPA Championship settled by a ‘best playing record formula’. The Tyrrells Premier 15 campaign was declared null and void.

The Scottish Rugby Union scrapped the remainder of its 2019-20 domestic games, with Murrayfield chiefs deciding it was “not a reasonable prospect in a safe and practical time frame” to resume and the Welsh Rugby Union cancelled all league and cup competitions for this term, covering all competitions currently under way, as well as matches between Welsh and Scottish clubs due to take place in April. World Rugby called time on its Under-20 Championship, which was scheduled in Italy this summer.

What events have been postponed, and until when?

This season’s Guinness Six Nations was the first major rugby union event to be hit, with four games – Ireland v Italy, Italy v England, France v Ireland and Wales v Scotland all postponed. No rearranged dates have been set, but late October has been mooted. England’s Gallagher Premiership is currently on hold until April 24, with the Guinness PRO14 – featuring teams from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Italy and South Africa – suspended indefinitely.

European rugby chiefs postponed the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup quarter-finals, which had been due to take place early next month, while HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series tournaments in London and Paris were postponed, in addition to the Melrose Sevens. Major competitions across the world have also been affected, highlighted by the southern hemisphere’s Super Rugby tournament – involving teams from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and Argentina – currently being suspended. The postponement of the Olympics affects the men’s and women’s sevens tournaments at the Games. In France the Challenge Cup and Champions Cup knockout stages have also been pushed back to an unspecified date.

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How about England’s tour of Japan?

A much-anticipated return to the scene of England’s recent runners-up World Cup finish is slated for July but seems highly unlikely to go ahead, particularly with the Tokyo Olympics already scrubbed from the calendar. No final decision has been made but an end of April deadline has been agreed between the respective boards and World Rugby. At present the outcome seems a formality.

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Amanaki Mafi in action for Japan against Ireland at the World Cup in September. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Is anything likely to remain on in 2020?

That is the big question for rugby chiefs throughout the world. They are dealing in unknown factors at the moment but all current information points to no resumption of competitions any time soon. England’s 2020-21 season is scheduled to start in mid-September, while players will also need a break from games and training before that all gets under way.

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(Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)

The general feeling is of competitions this term being curtailed or cancelled, although there is a precedent for a Six Nations resumption. In 2001, three of Ireland’s games were postponed following an outbreak of foot and mouth before being played in the September and October of that year. The sport is currently gripped by a huge bout of finger-crossing.

What is the financial impact?

In short, it is due to place an enormous strain at home and abroad. England head coach Eddie Jones has joined RFU executives in taking a 25% pay cut to deal with the short-term impacts, while a host of clubs have had to look at bringing about salary reductions, cost assessments and furloughing measures. The already precarious USA Rugby has filed for bankruptcy and there are concerning issues for Rugby Australia’s financial position.

Only time will tell how the sport recovers.

Press Association

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H
Hellhound 1 hour ago
South Africa player ratings | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

There is this thing going around against Siya Kolisi where they don't want him to be known as the best national captain ever, so they strike him down in ratings permanently whenever they can. They want McCaw and reckons he is the best captain ever. I disagree.


Just like they refuse to see SA as the best team and some have even said that should the Boks win a third WC in a row, they will still not be the best team ever. Even if they win every game between now and the WC. That is some serious hate coming SA's way.


Everyone forget how the McCaw AB's intimidated refs, was always on the wrong side, played on the ground etc. Things they would never have gotten away with today. They may have a better win ratio, but SA build depth, not caring about rank inbetween WC's until this year.


They weren't as bad inbetween as people claim, because non e of their losses was big ones and they almost never faced the strongest Bok team outside of the WC, allowing countries like France and Ireland to rise to the top unopposed.


Rassie is still at it, building more depth, getting more young stars into the fold. By the time he leaves (I hope never) he will leave a very strong Bok side for the next 15- 20 years. Not everyone will play for 20 years, but each year Rassie acknowledge the young stars and get them involved and ready for international rugby.


Not everyone will make it to the WC, but those 51/52 players will compete for those spots for the WC. They will deliver their best. The future of the Boks is in very safe hands. The only thing that bothers me is Rassie's health. If he can overcome it, rugby looks dark for the rest of the rugby world. He is already the greatest coach in WR history. By the time he retires, he will be the biggest legend any sport has ever seen

4 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

No where to be seen OB!


The crosses for me for the year where (from memory);


This was a really hard one to nail down as the first sign of a problem, now that I've asked myself to think about it. I'd say it all started with his decision to not back form and fit players after all the injuries, and/or him picking players for the future, rather ones that could play right now.


First he doesn't replace Perofeta straight away (goes on for months in the team) after injury against England, second he falls back to Beauden Barrett to cover at fullback against Fiji, then he drops Narawa the obvious choice to have started, then he brings in Jordan too soon. That Barret selection (and to a lesser extent Bell's) set the tone for the year.


Then he didn't get the side up for Argentina. They were blown away and didn't look like they expected a fight and were well beaten despite the scoreline in my opinion. Worst performance of the year in the forth game and..


Basically the same problems were persistent, or even exaggerated, after that with the players he did select not given much of an opportunity, with this year having the most number of unused subs I can remember since the amateur days.


What I think I started to realise early on was that he didn't back himself and his team. I think he prepared the players well, don't get me wrong, but I'll credit him with making a conscious choice in tempering his ambition and instead choosing cohesion and to respect (the idea of it being important in himself and his players) experience first and foremost (after two tight games and that 4th game loss). I think he chose wrong in deciding not to be, and back, himself. Hard criticism.


And it played out by preferring Beauden to Dmac on the EOYT (though that may have been a planned move).


I hope I'm right, because going through all the little things of the season and coming up with these bullets, I've got to wonder when I say his last fault is one we have seen at the Crusaders, playing his best players into the ground. What I'm really scared of now is that not wanting a bit of freshness in this last game could be linked with all these other crosses that I want to put down to simple confidence issues. But are they really a sign that he just lacks vision?


Now, that's not to say I haven't seen a lot of positives as well, I just think that for the ABs to go where they want to go he has to fix these crosses. Just have difficult that will be is the question.

28 Go to comments
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