Testing times all round

THE order of priorities at the RFU are hard to fathom. The Championship clubs are being told to pay the £5,000 per week Covid testing costs themselves before their league restarts in March.

Yet, the Women’s Premier 15s – eight of whose ten teams are run by Premiership clubs – have been told that the RFU will pay for their twice-weekly tests before the provisional restart on January 30.

Where is the justice in that? The level of investment in the Championship, and the perilous position of the clubs involved, is in a different league to that of the much smaller scale Women’s Premier 15s.