CHIEFS RAGE AT THE WARRIORS
Glasgow’s Covid complaint angers Baxter
EXETER CHIEFS director of rugby Rob Baxter has reacted with fury to reports Glasgow Warriors were preparing a complaint about the Devon club’s observance of Covid protocols during their recent Heineken Champions Cup match at Sandy Park.
Baxter insisted suggestions that Exeter substitutes did not follow guidance on social distancing were without foundation — and even hinted that his players may have caught the virus during the game.
Reports suggest the Warriors were concerned by a lack of mask-wearing and social distancing among the Exeter substitutes and staff during the clash at Sandy Park on December 13.
A number of Exeter staff tested positive for Covid-19 after the game, which the reigning champions won 42-0.
Twenty Glasgow players who were in Devon were required to self-isolate and the club announced last friday that four of those players had tested positive.
Glasgow issued a brief statement last weekend, saying: ‘ The health and well-being of our players and staff is our utmost priority.
‘There is feedback we have gathered that we will give to the appropriate people when we are ready. The club does not wish to comment further on the matter.’
Baxter hit back at Glasgow’s behaviour yesterday, saying: ‘It’s up to them if they want to publicly make comment and sling mud around, that’s entirely up to them.
‘I’m not sure why they’ve done it, I don’t know why what they’re talking about could not have been done privately in either a message to European rugby or directly to us without it being made public.
‘There’s numerous comments I could make about the things I witnessed among the Glasgow players and staff, what they allowed to happen in their areas, their changing room which they were in charge of once we handed it over to them, but it doesn’t help anybody to talk like that.
‘I’m not sure why clubs make a statement like that as some of the issues they’ve addressed publicly are blatantly not true.
‘ The rules and regulations around officials and f ourth officials wearing face-masks when they’re out in the open… I’m not sure what they’re intimating.
‘Things like that are covered by the regulations and are not required. But it’s what some teams choose to do in difficult circumstances.’
Baxter insisted he was comfortable with how his side had dealt with things during the Covid pandemic. ‘We spent a lot of time trying to look at how it potentially got into the camp and really the only explanation we can find is one or two players early in the week running into the Glasgow game potentially may have had it without being symptomatic,’ he said.
‘Of course, there is the outside chance it was picked up over the weekend from the Glasgow game.
‘It’s kind of an impossible scenario for us to be on top of because of the large asymptomatic nature of it among young rugby players, so it’s really very difficult to assess how it actually gets in.
‘It could come in through children, family members — it’s a very difficult scenario to try to put your finger on.’
Warriors were forced to forfeit their next European group fixture against Lyon and also had to postpone the Pro14 league fixture against Edinburgh on December 27, although that match will be re-scheduled.
Glasgow head coach Danny Wilson didn’t respond directly to questions as to why the club had gone public with their criticism and why they had given negative feedback about Exeter to European Cup organisers.
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