Townsend Covid fears impact on selection
Townsend Covid fears affected Scots selection England boss Jones forced to self-isolate
GREGOR TOWNSEND fears that Scotland’s Six Nations Covid ‘bubble’ could be undermined by Englishbased players having to return to their Premiership clubs. And the national head coach admitted it has forced him to change his selection policy for this year’s Championship to reduce the number of players criss-crossing the country during the pandemic. Despite the continuing spread of coronavirus, which has resulted in major outbreaks at English clubs — and which saw England head coach Eddie Jones having to self-isolate yesterday after assistant Matt Proudfoot tested positive — Sportsmail understands the Premiership will still insist on their players leaving the Scotland camp during fallow weeks or if they are not in the Six Nations matchday squad of 23, as per World Rugby regulations. By contrast, the Premiership have agreed that England can keep a 28-man squad
bubbled up’ for the duration of the tournament.
Wayne Pivac, whose Wales team is facing the same disadvantage as the Scots, has already pleaded with Premiership Rugby to drop their demands as doubts grow over the viability — and sporting integrity — of the competition.
Townsend, who yesterday revealed his squad for the opening Calcutta Cup clash at Twickenham on February 6, said: ‘This year, we’ve had to take into account Six Nations is different from Autumn Nations (Cup). We are not able to keep our players in a group throughout the tournament.
‘Our players based in England will have to leave on the Wednesday of our camp to go back to play for their clubs next week.
‘And, if they are not in our 23 for England (the opening fixture), then they will have to go on the Tuesday or Wednesday back to their club.
‘That’s normal practice — it’s Regulation Nine of World Rugby’s directives. It just makes it more challenging during this period when we’re dealing with Covid, players leaving environments and coming back.’
Exeter scrum-half Sam HidalgoClyne is among a number of players who have been excluded from the Scotland squad as a result.
Townsend said: ‘There have been factors in our selection regarding the fact that we can’t hold on to players throughout the tournament. It’s case by case, but it wouldn’t have been a factor before.
‘There are players who would have been in our squad for the autumn where we’ve decided that, because of the situation, we have to factor that in. We want to reduce the risk of players coming in and out every week.
‘As you know, that’s probably the biggest risk of getting the virus — and how we’re stopping the virus coming into our camp.’
New Zealander Pivac, who said the WRU were in discussions with Premiership Rugby over the matter, said: ‘With what’s going on and people moving in and out of clubs and back to their communities and from one bubble to another, that’s where the transmission rate is taking off.
‘In every organisation there are medical people connected to the people with all the information.
‘They are the people who will hopefully get all the right messaging out and get the right result.
‘For me, personally, in the current climate, that’s us staying in our environment and bubble which we’ve shown is successful.
‘Last time around, we released maybe one player to club rugby in the entire autumn series.’
Explaining that he hopes to get a definitive answer by the end of the week, Pivac added: ‘Regulations say one thing — but I’m reasonably confident the right people are having the right conversations and we’ll get that news very, very shortly.’
Asked how he felt about the prospect of the Six Nations starting and finishing on schedule, Townsend said: ‘As confident as I can be.
‘Two or three weeks ago, when Europe (the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup) got cancelled, that was a tough time for everybody, not knowing whether the tournament would go ahead.
‘Following that, and with the French Government’s insistence on various protocols, every competing nation and the organisers believe that the tournament will go ahead as planned.
‘Things will just have to be strict with testing. We have twice-weekly tests now, as opposed to once weekly in autumn, and tests before you travel to France and Italy.
‘It is something that we are obviously hoping will take place, start and finish.
‘But things have changed over the past 12 months. We have a really good set-up at Oriam and we can make sure we look after our players and keep the virus out of our environment as much as possible.
‘Hopefully the tournament will proceed and be completed in the normal time.
‘We have more flexibility than club teams. If you have cases within your club environment, then you are restricted to the players that you have there. We are pulling in players from a number of teams in Europe.
‘While it would be a challenge, we would call other players in and they would have to go through our testing procedures.
‘In terms of contingencies we have more front-row players in our squad so, if something was to happen in a scrum session or a prop was to get the virus, then we know that the players who have more chance of picking it up are other front-row players.
‘There is some contingency there. But we have lots of players who didn’t make the squad that we know can play well at international level and can come in if necessary. It would just depend how late in the week we’d have to change, but we’ll be prepared for that, and with twice-weekly testing you should have even more of a gauge whether there is any virus lingering around the camp — which wasn’t the case in the eight weeks we had together in the autumn.’
In a rallying cry for allowing the show to go on, Townsend added: ‘I think watching sport can lift people at this time.
‘During lockdown, to be able to watch your team in any sport has been a welcome distraction and positive during a really challenging time.’
Meanwhile, England head coach Jones was locked into isolation last night after his forwards coach Proudfoot tested positive, hugely disrupting his Six Nations plans.
Former Scotland international Proudfoot was revealed to have caught the virus via England’s testing programme on Monday. Jones, 60, and attack coach Simon Amor now have to stay indoors for ten days.
As close contacts of Proudfoot, who it’s understood is symptomless, they will now miss the start of England’s first training camp next week ahead of the Calcutta Cup clash.
Jones will pick his tournament squad as normal tomorrow but, while he awaits the result of another test booked in for later in the week, he will have to conduct meetings virtually until next Thursday at the earliest.
It is another blow to England’s Six Nations preparations after skills coach Jason Ryles remained stuck in his native Australia due to the lockdown.
Jones has called up Ed Robinson, the 27-year-old Jersey Reds assistant and son of former England and Scotland boss Andy, as a replacement for Ryles.