Wasps cleared to take Premiership final place after fresh Covid-19 tests
The Premiership final between Wasps and Exeter will now go ahead as scheduled but doubts still hang over the precise makeup of the 23-man squad Wasps will be able to select at Twickenham on Saturday.
It is understood Wasps’ first-choice XV is unaffected by the Covid-19 outbreak that had threatened the club’s involvement in the final but some candidates for the replacements’ bench have been forced to self-isolate.
Simply being able to participate in the final, however, will be a huge relief both to Wasps and the league’s organisers following the 11 positive tests recorded at the club over the past week. A further round of testing has produced no further positive results and Lee Blackett’s side have been given the green light to face the Chiefs this weekend.
It means that third-placed Bristol, who had been placed on standby, will not be required to extend their season any further while Wasps seek to put their disrupted buildup behind them and deny Exeter a European and domestic “double”.
“This is just another challenge for us to adapt to and overcome,” Blackett said. “We are doing everything we can to make sure we take the opportunity in the final.”
Exeter have also reported a clean bill of health regarding Covid-19 but Rob Baxter, their director of rugby, remains acutely conscious of the bigger financial picture facing rugby nationwide.
“The biggest challenge for rugby at the moment is not who wins trophies, it’s going to be staying around as a professional viable sport over the next 12 months,” Baxter said.
“At Exeter we are OK here and now. We can ride a certain amount of losses because of the success of the club. But it can’t go on for ever. So it is a concern as we don’t feel like we are moving forward. Until we know what the government policy is in the longer term, we are living in limbo.
“If a vaccine turns up in a week we will be all be cheering and life will go back to normal relatively quickly. If we stay in lockdown and restrictions until that day, it will get a bit scary for people.”
For that reason Baxter believes it would have still been correct to push ahead with a hastily reshuffled final against Bristol even if Wasps had not been able to participate.
“It would have felt odd, it would have felt weird, it would have felt difficult but rugby clubs can’t afford not to stage games and not to have television revenue. They just can’t. If someone says they have a better solution I would like to see them come up with one.”
Baxter also predicts a tightening of next season’s regulations surrounding fixtures threatened by Covid-19 outbreaks and he remains personally wary of the virus taking greater hold in the south west.
“I’m terrified of it myself, I don’t mind telling you,” Baxter said. “Once it gets into the community we could be one of the most affected clubs because we haven’t had it yet. Am I worried about it? Yes. Is there a rule or regulation that can get us round it? I don’t think there is.”