English rugby looks stupid

OUR ADMINISTRATORS ARE NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE. SALE FIASCO IS EMBARRASSING

ENGlISh rugby should feel embarrassed this morning with the inevitable cancellation of last night’s Sale-Worcester game.

While huge efforts continue within rugby and other sports to keep live action on our screens, public, player and staff safety must always remain the priority. That priority was lost somewhere over the last week.

It was game over, literally, from the moment Sale recorded 19 positives — 16 players and three staff — last Friday.

Such a significant outbreak within a tight-knit group was only going to grow and it was a totally unacceptable risk for members of that club to play Worcester. This was clear to see for everybody and while I can vaguely understand why Sale might wish to explore every avenue to find a solution, the reality of the situation should have been spelled out to them in no uncertain terms.

Somebody at Premiership Rugby and at the RFU needed to step in at the weekend and say: ‘NO. Enough is enough.’

The last few days have been one of confusion. This is a time when the game is negotiating with the Government to try to secure vital financial backing to get it through our Covid-related problems.

Do the movers and shakers in the game not see how this looked to the outside world? What sort of message would it have sent if Worcester had been required to travel to Manchester last night and play a Covid-plagued team in a city which has one of the highest infection rates in Britain?

The fact it was even being contemplated shows no duty of care to the players and officials. Procedures were in place but how worrying is it that they were prepared to contemplate ignoring them to get the game on?

If it had gone ahead last night it would also have undermined the integrity of a competition so many have worked hard to preserve this summer. To play in such circumstances would have massively undermined their efforts.

The final games were meant to be played at the same time on

Super Sunday, so that no one gained undue advantage. You can’t just abandon that.

let’s say that game had been played and Sale had won, does anybody believe it was a remotely workable idea for a Covid-infested Sale squad to then go again a few days later in a semi-final?

Where is Premiership Rugby’s much vaunted player welfare and duty of care? And again, what message does this indecision send out?

Premier league and EFl teams have acted far more decisively with positive cases — as has cricket, the NBA and NFl.

It’s not an unreasonable question to ask whether our rugby administrators are fit for purpose.

Who are these people and how do they get appointed to such positions of power? Why do we rarely hear from them directly, why is the wider game — including supporters — not taken into their confidence and told what is going on? Who is the voice of authority and reason in our domestic game? We could have done with hearing from them over the last four or five days.

It’s not remotely good enough and it will take a couple of belting semi-finals this weekend to expunge this bitter taste.

But on second thoughts, I am not sure that is possible!