Teams face 20-0 penalty

Crowded schedule rules out option of rearranging games Harlequins new signings to miss opener after visa delays

Any Premiership team who are unable to field a team because of Covid-19 after the league resumes on Friday will suffer an automatic 20-0 defeat. Opponents will be awarded five points, as if they had won the game with a four-try bonus point. Being able to field a front row is likely to be the key area of concern.

Gallagher Premiership teams will suffer an automatic 20-0 defeat if they are unable to field a team because of an outbreak of Covid-19 among their squad.

With no space for replays in a crowded calendar, a panel appointed by Premiership Rugby would then ratify the outcome as an abandonment.

The club able to field a squad of players would receive five points, as if they had won the game with a four-try bonus point.

Mark Tainton, chief operating officer of Bristol Bears, said ahead of the resumption of fixtures on Friday that “a workable front row” was likely to be the key area of concern.

“If you can’t field a front row then you can’t play the game,” he said. “Then it is up to the powersthat-be to investigate why you can’t play the game.

“If you are found to be responsible for what your players have been doing, then the opposition will get five points. If it is proven to be no one’s fault and you can’t play the game then it is two points each.

“The players have to be sensible. They can’t go out and socialise and they can’t go out and have coffees together.”

Steve Diamond, the Sale Sharks director of rugby, does not expect the “worst-case scenario” to materialise and praised Premiership Rugby for putting in “a hell of a lot of work” amid “a whole raft of bureaucracy”.

An increase in coronavirus testing has marked the restart of fixtures, which could cause late reshuffles when midweek matches begin. For instance, when Sale face Wasps on Aug 25, they will have received the results of the previous day’s tests that morning. “Hey-ho,” Diamond said. “I think every club has a similar time-frame.”

The league’s resumption suffered a further snag yesterday, when BBC Sport reported that leading referee Wayne Barnes is due to miss the first two rounds of matches.

Barnes flew to Majorca on holiday the day before a 14-day quarantine period was imposed by the

Government for those returning to the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Harlequins and Sale, the two sides involved in Friday’s fixture, have players unavailable.

Springboks Andre Esterhuizen and Wilco Louw, two of Harlequins’ new signings, have been held up in South Africa because of visa issues.

Although they were expected to arrive in London at the weekend, the pair will not be able to make their Premiership debuts as soon as had been anticipated.

Sale have not been able to include Cobus Wiese for the same reason, while centre Sam James fell victim to the quarantine rules that have hit Barnes.

James’s absence, with Rohan Janse van Rensburg also suspended, means Diamond is likely to pick a starting combination of Sam Hill and Manu Tuilagi in midfield.