The Covid-19 invites itself into the sports locker rooms. The meeting between the Toulouse Stadium and the French Stadium, scheduled for Sunday, December 26 in Toulouse, has been postponed. The postponement of what was the poster of this day, decided by the National Rugby League (LNR) “Because of the health situation of the workforce” Parisian “Following the tests carried out this [dimanche] morning “, comes to spoil the party even more for the spectators, after already three postponements of matches for this 13e Top 14 day.
“The postponement date of the meeting will be communicated later”, specified the NRL. Another confrontation scheduled for Sunday, opposing Brive to Clermont, had already been postponed. The other two postponed matches were initially scheduled to take place on Monday: they were Racing 92 – Pau and Toulon – Bordeaux-Bègles.
After these four postponements, there are still three matches on the menu for this 13e matchday: Perpignan must meet Castres on Sunday at 6 p.m., then Biarritz will face Montpellier and La Rochelle, Lyon, Monday, respectively at 7 p.m. and 9:05 p.m.
Already several European matches to catch up
This situation will have consequences for the European competitions postponed last weekend. Seven meetings between French and British clubs, five in the Champions Cup and two in the European Challenge, have already been postponed due to travel restrictions between the two countries.
The matches of La Rochelle in Bath, Clermont in Sale or Bordeaux-Bègles against the Scarlets (Llanelli) will therefore be played at a later date. Just like the reception of the English from Bristol and the Wasps by Stade Français and Toulouse respectively. In Challenge, Worcester-Biarritz and London Irish-Brive are concerned.
Last season, the NRL had been able to adapt postponement after postponement and the championship was able to come to an end, with a second consecutive title for Stade Toulouse, already crowned in 2019. Slots are available to play late matches, especially February 12-13, March 12-13 and March 19-20. The Top 14 must in principle take a break for these dates which coincide with the days of the Six Nations Tournament (February 5-March 19).
But the meteoric spread of the Omicron variant casts doubt on the rest of the competition, as France crossed the threshold of 100,000 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday in twenty-four hours. In the Premier League, where football clubs are facing a flood of positive cases of this new variant, three Boxing Day matches scheduled for Sunday have been postponed: Liverpool-Leeds, Wolverhampton-Watford and Burnley-Everton. This brings the total number of adjourned matches in England to thirteen.
