Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Games to come thick and fast for Premiership clubs
and Phil Winstanley, rugby director at Premiership Rugby, admitted the league were trying to be proactive with how to manage the load.
He confirmed talks continued with the Rugby Football Union’s director of performance rugby Conor O’Shea and Damian Hopley, chief executive at the Rugby Players’ Association.
“The clubs have been really in favour because competition integrity is important to any outcome of a season,” Winstanley said. “I think clearly we would have rather not played games initially, but working with Conor and Damian for midweek games, we are very proactive with that and need to look at how that loading works and we are engaging with the directors of rugby over how that works.
“Whether it is limiting game-time, limiting turnaround time, it is a proactive discussion, but we recognise we need to come up with a solution that involves the RPA and RFU.”
Premiership clubs were given the green light to move from stage one to stage two of the training guidance on Monday. This allows clubs to hold contact training sessions in small groups, but on Wednesday the governing body announced ten people had tested positive for coronavirus following the first round of testing.
Of the 804 tests, six players and four non-playing staff were found to have Covid-19.
Childs added: “It is in line with expectations in terms of the first round of testing.
“We have had to put in one of most rigorous testing machines in elite sport and that is why it has taken some time.”
Meanwhile, no update could be provided on London Irish, who are without a home ground due to their tenancy at the Madejski Stadium being up. The Exiles were set to move to the Brentford Community Stadium, but the ground is yet to be completed.
THE Gallagher Premiership will restart on Friday, August 14 with Harlequins hosting Sale and finish with the play-off final on Saturday, October 24, with clubs due to play several midweek fixtures, Premiership Rugby has announced.
The Quins-Sale fixture at the Twickenham Stoop will end the longest hiatus in Premiership history of 159 days.
A day later, four more matches will take place – Bath versus London Irish, Bristol Bears against Saracens,
Exeter versus Leicester Tigers, and Worcester against Gloucester – before a packed weekend of action ends when Northampton host Wasps on Sunday, August 16.
Clubs will have to prepare their players for midweek fixtures, with a minimum turnaround of four days, but Premiership chief executive Darren Childs insists all 12 teams have been supportive of plans to ensure the final nine rounds of the 2019/20 season are completed.
He said: “The reaction has been really positive. It was very clear early on that we wanted to keep the integrity of competition and, if