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Saturday's Benetton vs Munster PRO14 match is off

04 Nov 2020

(Photo by Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

A Guinness PRO14 match involving Benetton has been postponed for the second successive weekend due to Covid. The Italian side were initially due to play at Connacht last Sunday. That round four match fell by the wayside and now their round five game against Munster, another Irish team, has also been called off with a view to rescheduling it for some time in 2021.

A statement from the PRO14 read: “The round five Guinness fixture between Benetton and Munster has been postponed. “The game was due to take place on Saturday, November 7, in Treviso.

“However, Benetton have reported that three players have returned positive cases of Covid-19 and that four other players identified as close contacts are now isolating.

CJ Stander guest-stars on this week’s episode of RugbyPass Offload

“Having considered all of the available evidence, the PRO14 Rugby Medical Advisory Group has deemed that this fixture cannot go ahead as scheduled. PRO14 Rugby will examine potential dates in early 2021 to reschedule the game.”

First-time quarter-finalists in 2019, Benetton have been having a hard time since rugby restarted in Italy. All three matches of the new 2020/21 season have been lost, leaving them bottom of Conference B with just a single point, 16 behind group leaders Munster.

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— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 4, 2020

The admission that they are three positive tests in the Benetton ranks with four players also identified as close contacts is more information than was put out when last weekend’s match in Galway was called off. The PRO14 statement announcing that call-off vaguely read: “Benetton will not be able to travel due to a small number of isolated positive cases of Covid-19.

“Public health guidelines in Italy currently prevent the Benetton squad from resuming rugby activities. As a result, the fixture cannot take place as planned. PRO14 Rugby can also confirm that Scarlets, who Benetton played in round three, have returned negative results from their PCR testing this week.”

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— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 4, 2020

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SG 32 minutes ago

All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

England have absolutely no need for him. Tom Willis and Ben Earl are better with a much higher work rate.

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JW 54 minutes ago

'Ulster, though no one wants to admit it, isn't much more than a development province right now.'

No full games on the IRU YT channel unfortunately, all on subscription? Looks a fairly good level (1A).

Yes I mean I wouldn’t really know the local ratio of origin here, but certainly as a province with less resources mine has a ratio that veers heavily towards club rep. The club stories are often the best so get probably an imbalanced proportion of coverage to where most players actually come from though.

Those were a couple of Ulster (regional) clubs too, good good. Those clubs/size towns are very much where you find most talent coming from (compared to the big city), so your productivity depends very much on your systems in place for scouting talent. With the more wealthy and popular sport of NRL (hence more info out there) I’ve seen some interesting studies on player origins in this respect, which I think would be a very balanced base of data to draw conclusions from.

Yes I’m wondering how those names as examples compare to the likes of Bryne getting squeezed out for a lack of places. I’m only thinking of effects far down the line as a result of Irelands #1 ranking and increased publicity/interest and how Irelands system will take advantage of them.

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GP 1 hour ago

James O'Connor earns first Crusaders start against Moana Pasifika

Regarding the Crusaders side . Great to see promising young lock Jamie Hannah back in the starting team. He has certainly been through the mill since debuting for the Crusaders, even before playing for Canterbury. All his hard work has paid off. Antonio Shalfoon , who has been rested for this match has been amazing locking with AB captain Scott Barrett. I really rate Jamie Hannah as one of the best young locks of which there are a few coming through. Including his Canterbury and Crusaders team mate Liam Jack. Father is Graham Jack ,he played for Canterbury and the Crusaders in the 1990’s. Older brother of Chris, who of course was an All Black.

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Andrew Nichols 1 hour ago

All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

Gloucester are in the market for a top-class replacement ..Well why would they then be talking to HS?

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Utiku Old Boy 1 hour ago

All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

I include Cunningham-South. He was born in England but moved to NZ at 4 yrs and learnt his rugby there. His dad was a schoolboy coach. In recent years, Teimana Harrison was - as was Brad Shields.

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GB 1 hour ago

All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

Cunningham-South was born in the UK but raised in NZ.

Makes a good point, wouldn't walk into the English set up.

Better to roll his sleeves up and play himself into the ABs

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Spew_81 1 hour ago

Rugby down under could have hit high gear with Anzac Tests

Not sure what the ethical issue is. If it’s going for the money, it’s either do that or NZ rugby slowly dies as all the better players leave. So it’s the more lesser of two evils. Sell out a bit more as a Union, or the players sell out one by one.

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Spew_81 1 hour ago

Rugby down under could have hit high gear with Anzac Tests

Yes, the team was similar. But the two locks made a huge difference. Kaino wasn’t a lock and Tuipolutu has only very recently started playing close to his potential (his work rate was terrible until recently).

The Irish lineout maul wouldn’t have been the weapon it was on that day if Hansen started Whitelock and Retallick (or even two proper locks). Though they wouldn’t have been guaranteed to win.

Doing the new haka when the Irish were mourning a great of theirs didn’t help. The action at the end of that haka has been interpreted negatively and some see it as a but disrespectful.

Still if the All Blacks did their normal haka they wouldn’t have been guaranteed to win.

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Koro Teeps 1 hour ago

All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

Absolutely no certainty he would make the current English squad. He’s not in the All Black conversation either. Physical, explosive player with ball in hand but sometimes struggles to impose himself fully on all aspects of the game.

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DC 1 hour ago

All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

Who are the Kiwis (plural)? The only one I can think of is Ethan Root.

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Gradier Walter 3 hours ago

Don't get out over your skis on the Highlanders