Premier 15s players to be tested for virus when league resumes

Players in the Allianz Premier 15s will be tested for coronavirus when the league resumes, the Rugby Football Union has confirmed.

The top tier of women’s rugby was suspended this month for two weeks amid the surge in the number of Covid-19 cases, a day after Premiership Rugby’s decision also to break for a fortnight rather than take up the fixture slots that opened up when the European Champions Cup and Challenge Cup were put on hold.

There had been growing concern over player welfare in the RFU’S flagship women’s competition, where adapted law variations have been brought in to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission, including limited scrums and 35-minute halves.

The RFU said it would pay for twice-weekly lateral flow tests, which provide Covid-19 results in 30 minutes, to complement the existing law variations.

It is not known how much the testing will cost, although one source told The Daily Telegraph it was likely to be in the region of £500 a week for each of the league’s 10 teams. All Premier 15s clubs are already following rigorrob ous Covid-19 protocols in training and on match days.

The RFU intends to restart the Premier 15s on Jan 30 – although that could be pushed back depending on the public health situation – with an official update due next week. It is understood resuming the league on Feb 6 is considered a worst-case scenario. The body has already confirmed the adapted law variations will be in place for the rest of the 2020-21 season.

Kristine Sommer, the United States international and Harlequins player, this month called for coronavirus testing to be introduced in the Premier 15s amid mounting concern that players’ safety was being compromised.

Sommer wrote on social media: “I’ll say it 100,000 times how grateful I am to play rugby in the UK, but when is player safety a concern? No real bubbles – no testing. This should be discussed, right?”