SaberCats to return after COVID-19 break
The SaberCats are set to play in their first game since last March when they take on the Seattle Seawolves on Saturday at AVEVA Stadium.
While the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of Houston’s season after just five games in 2020, the team says it has a few things going in its favor heading into a new season.
“We’re lucky that we’ve kept about 75 percent of our squad from last (season),” SaberCats head coach Paul Healy told reporters in a Zoom meeting prior to the team starting its training camp.
Houston was forced to begin preparing for the upcoming campaign in different group pods, as the team called it, that started in between four to six players in each one and expanded to more as the weeks went along.
The goal was to avoid the virus impacting a specific position group if an outbreak occurred. Not being able to practice as one big team for a portion of its camp, however, made things more challenging for the SaberCats.
“Rugby is a team game,” backrow Luke Beauchamp said, “so it is a little tricky, and it is a little foreign for us.”
The SaberCats players and coaches will not be the only ones that will need to work around the virus this season.
AVEVA Stadium will operate at 50 percent capacity on Saturday, and for the foreseeable future, depending on how the COVID-19 situation is in Houston, a team spokesperson said. There will also be various other protocols in place to try and limit any possible spread at games.
“Obviously, it’s a bit different this year,” Healy said. “As coaches and players, we have to think differently and be a bit patient and adapt to any change we need to make pretty much on the run, so we can all get through this to the other end.”