A little over three weeks before the theoretical resumption of the French championship, the Top 14 clubs, the elite of French rugby, are in full uncertainty. They do not know whether or not they will be able to host a mass audience in their stadiums, an important parameter for their finances. But, above all, they do not know if their teams will really be able to start the season.
If the clubs wonder if they will be able to benefit from a derogation from the prefects to derogate from the rule of “No more than 5,000 people in sports grounds” that the government decided on Tuesday August 11 to extend by at the end of August to the end of October, the main question at the moment concerns the state of health of their workforce: will their teams be able to count on enough players able to play matches while, for several days, the Covid- 19 multiply in several clubs?
Lyon thus announced the 1er August count three positive cases, which resulted in the cancellation of an internship. A little earlier, in mid-July, Agen had communicated on a positive case within his team, which had led to the interruption for two weeks of collective training. The Stade Français is now facing an identical situation. But of greater magnitude.
Several players from the Parisian team tested positive on their return from a training camp in Nice, the club announced on Wednesday August 5. Since then, the health situation has “Degraded”, said the management, Monday August 10. Consequence: she decided to “Immediately stop all training” and to place all players and sports personnel in isolation.
The club did not specify the number of people affected by Covid-19, but the daily The team reported 25 positive cases. “All players and sports personnel are now placed in solitary confinement, at least until August 17, and remain under the club’s medical supervision. New tests will be carried out on Monday August 17th », said the French Stadium. A friendly match against Brive, scheduled for August 14, has been canceled.
Players called to “take responsibility”
In Montpellier, it is the announcement that the companion of a player had been in contact with a person tested positive for Covid-19 which caused the turmoil of the fight: the club decided, Tuesday, to suspend training collective while awaiting the return of the results of the tests that have been carried out. A friendly match against Aurillac, scheduled for August 14, has also been postponed to August 21. But, on Wednesday morning, the club management indicated that the tests carried out had come back negative.
If the cases continue to multiply, some matches on the first day of the championship, scheduled for September 3, 4 and 5, could be compromised. The protocol established by the National Rugby League (LNR) when cases of Covid are detected is indeed clear: players who test positive remain in isolation for 14 days, before being able to resume collective training if a new test shows that they are no longer contagious.
“We can imagine a postponement of the first two games of Stade Français, but this will impact two other clubs (Bordeaux and Castres). How then to catch up with these matches? “, Clermont manager Franck Azéma said on a daily basis The mountain. ” Should we take out the entire workforce when we have positive guys? If there are only two or three cases, can we take them out and allow the rest of the group to continue, like in football? ”, he also questioned, while explaining that the NRL is considering the implementation of a competition protocol.
To try to avoid the worst, the League has already put in place “An awareness plan” with players from Top 14 clubs (and Pro D2, the lower level, too). These are called to ” take responsibility ” and to be cautious in the contacts they may have outside the family and outside the club. “It is about the good resumption or not of the championships”, warned the LNR, while French rugby has already been financially challenged by the premature interruption, in the spring, of the 2019-2020 season.
