Gloucester awarded match against Saints

THE conclusion of the Gallagher Premiership season descended into chaos on Saturday after Sale’s match against Worcester was rescheduled, while Gloucester were awarded a walkover win over Northampton.

Sale’s Sunday clash with the Warriors was called off after 16 of their players tested positive for coronavirus, but Premiership Rugby announced that the game will now take place on Wednesday, subject to stringent retesting.

However, Northampton will not be given a second chance after withdrawing from their match against Gloucester due to all but two of their front row resources having to self-isolate as a result of their match against Sale on Tuesday.

The decision to hand Gloucester a 20-0 win means Worcester are denied any realistic chance of qualifying for the Champions Cup, which they could have achieved had they beaten a depleted Sale and Gloucester lost to Northampton.

In addition, Sale will go into the projected Wednesday fixture knowing exactly what they have to do to seal a play-off place, with rivals Wasps and Bath set to face Exeter and Saracens respectively on Sunday, and Bristol travelling to London Irish.

Premiership Rugby CEO Darren Childs said: “When we embarked on Rugby Restart back in August we said from the outset that the health and safety of everyone involved with Premiership Rugby was our priority.

“We understand and sympathise with Northampton Saints’ position. They are in this position due to no fault of their own, but unfortunately they cannot fulfil the fixture.”