Now we reach the moment of truth
THE moment of truth has come. Rugby in these parts desperately needs to emerge from hibernation and the process reaches a tipping point today with the resumption of contact training.
This is when so much earnest theory must translate into effective practice. This is when all the video conferences and planning must equate to safety for those asked to get back to what they do for a living — knock lumps out of each other.
Even the busiest bars in Soho are paragons of social- distancing virtue compared to rugby pitches during matches or full- throttle training sessions.
It is hard to imagine another ball game which is so ill- equipped to prevent the spread of a highly contagious virus.
If a cricket ball is a ‘natural vector of disease’, what on earth does that make a scrum? It is a sporting incubation chamber. The same could be said for mauls and rucks.
When Premiership Rugby chief executive Darren Childs admitted that rugby has ‘unique challenges due to levels of proximity and impact’, it was a contender for understatement of the year.
But this phase needs to work. Rugby cannot afford setbacks such as a torrent of positive Covid tests when the samples are taken from club squads and staff on a weekly basis.
Any additional delays to the mid-August resumption target could be devastating. There is something other- worldly about watching footage of matches taking place, complete with crowds, in the southern hemisphere.
Here, where the situation has been far more critical, the steps to recovery are slower and stakes higher.
It appears that, despite the backdrop of pay cuts and unrest, players are impatient to get back to work. There seems to be a willingness to trust the guidance and hurl themselves into the fray again.
Bodies will be sore tonight, but gradually they will become familiar with the old routine. Providing there are no setbacks, they will be ready by mid-August. Everyone has had enough of dire financial forecasts and squabbles. Rugby needs to resume before it self-combusts.