Youth is no excuse for rule breach
EDINBURGH did not have to look far to see what a coronavirus outbreak within their first-team squad could have cost. Just 24 hours after the story broke about their four young academy players breaching Covid-19 regulations by attending a house party, French club Castres were being forced to forfeit their European Challenge Cup match against Leicester Tigers after three of their players and one official contracted the virus.
Perhaps, given Edinburgh’s result in Bordeaux, some might argue the game would have been as well called off. But that’s really not the point.
Thus far, only one youngster from the capital club has tested positive, with the first-team squad receiving the all-clear before their trip to France, but that is down to good fortune rather than anything else.
These are precarious times for us all and the seriousness of this latest breach should not be underestimated.
Being in your late teens or early 20s is no excuse for reckless behaviour. The ‘daft laddies’ defence doesn’t stand up. The rules are clear and the repercussions, which could extend far beyond a rugby field, have been hammered home.
Tearing up their contracts is, of course, too extreme but a suspension is certainly warranted. A public apology should also be forthcoming, much like the Aberdeen footballers who broke the rules had to issue. They were also fined by their club.
You have to feel for Richard Cockerill. It has been left to the Edinburgh head coach to deal with this, with the SRU missing in action once more and Mark Dodson — the supposed leader of the Scottish game — silent.
Cockerill, who was trying to prepare his depleted squad for a major cup match remember, made clear that the players had all ‘let the team down’ by their actions.
‘They know how they should behave, they know all the things that have been put in place to get games to be played and crowds in the stadium,’ said the furious Englishman. ‘I’m disappointed that they chose to ignore it because they think those rules didn’t apply to them.’
There was a statement put out in the name of SRU chief operating officer Dominic McKay reminding people to keep to the rules which included criticism of the ‘Rugby Four’ from Scotland’s National
Clinical Director, Professor Jason Leitch.
Edinburgh’s senior players were only allowed to travel to France to play Bordeaux-Begles after rigorous Covid-19 checks carried out on the squad and officials. That wasn’t the sort of worry they would have wanted in the build-up to the big match.
Through all this, you have to feel sorry, too, for SRU chief medical officer Dr James Robson. He pioneered the plan to turn BT Murrayfield into a Covid-19free ‘bio-bubble’, to the extent that it was the first stadium in Scotland to allow fans inside.
There were only 700 for the Edinburgh-Glasgow game but the trial was a success and his hard work was justifiably praised.
Now he has to deal with these idiotic actions by young players who were caught through the excellent testing system that all the players have to undertake.
Scotland have six international matches coming up over a sevenweek period, four of them planned for Murrayfield. The SRU hope to have fans allowed into these matches to bring in much-needed revenue.
That will only happen if there are no more Covid-19 cases inside Murrayfield or among the squads based there and obviously the general situation in the country needs to improve.
The game is on a knife-edge and, with the domestic season due to kick off early next month, there is no room for error, or stupidity.