Postponed games. : Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:35 am  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/57799311

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/57799311

Re: Postponed games. : Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:36 am  

Have accusations been made?

[Fantastic Mr Catpiss]

Re: Postponed games. : Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:59 am  

cas have been a bit suss, as have salford.

Re: Postponed games. : Mon Jul 12, 2021 2:48 pm  

karetaker wrote:

Have accusations been made?

Other than by me on Twitter, no.

But it's really blatant that clubs are making efforts to get games postponed rather than trying their best to get them played. Cas haven't really even hidden it, taking a walkover rather than playing. Hull and Warrington both could have played but didn't as a choice because the rules allow it.

They're just reacting to the number of games clubs are postponing. If clubs continue to postpone any match they are entitled to by the rules the competition is severely devalued and we get closer to a point where Sky have the option to pull the funding.

It's their own fault for setting the rules as they are. It should always have been a points deduction rather than postponement after the first covid outbreak at each club. Other wise there is no incentive at all to take protocols seriously. It's been very telling this week that Cas have admitted their players have taken it seriously so that they're not ruled out of playing at Wembley. Why not be that thorough throughout?

Re: Postponed games. : Mon Jul 12, 2021 2:55 pm  

Liam Watts' tweets on this subject are also very telling. He said that they need to stop testing healthy rugby players so it stops giving clubs the excuse to call games off. Read what you want into the first part of that and how you stand on covid, but the fact a player has said the second part stands out.

"How can the rest of society open up and expect us to keep getting tested?? it's never going to work. We need to stop testing players ASAP or games will get called off every week until this happens. Stops giving teams excuses for not being able to field a team due to covid."

Re: Postponed games. : Mon Jul 12, 2021 3:00 pm  

Shouldn't all this stop after the 19th July ?

Re: Postponed games. : Mon Jul 12, 2021 3:06 pm  

ninearches wrote:

Shouldn't all this stop after the 19th July ?

Well, some employers will still insist on Covid tests I expect, plus until mid August people will still need to isolate if they have been listed as a close contact of someone, after mid August I think you can avoid isolating if you have been double jabbed - although positive cases will obviously still have to isolate.

Re: Postponed games. : Mon Jul 12, 2021 3:28 pm  

ninearches wrote:

Shouldn't all this stop after the 19th July ?

Restrictions may be lifted, such as the numbers who can attend a match, but testing and isolation does not stop automatically (although schools and the NHS are looking at whether they need to isolate as many close contacts as they do today).

My guess is that, as long as players are fully vaccinated, they may not need to isolate after a contact although they may still need to be tested. That's not been said, I'm just making a prediction.

Last season we lost quite a few games when the number of cases was low. Right now the infection rate is where it was in Dec 2020 with forecasts that it will more than double in the coming weeks. lf the rules don't change then many more games are likely to be lost.

Re: Postponed games. : Mon Jul 12, 2021 5:29 pm  

It's difficult to balance player, staff and other peoples welfare against fulfilling SL fixtures. Where there's a situation that could be exploited, then there will always be the perception of some that this has taken place, whether it's true, or not.

Re: Postponed games. : Mon Jul 12, 2021 6:22 pm  

The problem seems to be getting worse not better, so I can only summise that

a). Mr Incompetence has called into the RFL for tea again
b). Clubs are being disingenuous
c). Something has gone awry with the whole testing setup

Or most likely d). All the above.