In a letter sent to the National Rugby League on Saturday, the Minister for Sports recommends that French clubs engaged in the European Cup postpone their next matches against British teams.
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Le Monde
The spread of the English variant of Covid-19, a more contagious strain of the virus, worries the small world of sport. To the point of posing, for example, serious threats to the holding of European rugby competitions, be it the European Cups, or even the Six Nations Tournament.
In a press release transmitted, Saturday, January 9 to Agence France-Pesse (AFP), the minister responsible for sports thus informed that, “in accordance with the wishes expressed by several French professional rugby clubs in recent days”, he had recommended to the latter to postpone their scheduled matches against the British teams in the European Cup.
According to the mail sent by the Ministry to the National Rugby League (LNR), a consultation meeting on the organization of the Six Nations Tournament, scheduled for February 6, will also be held from the beginning of next week.
Monday 4 January, a meeting between the medical commission of the LNR and the European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), the organizer of the European Cups (the Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup) had led to an agreement with a view to strengthening anti-Covid-19 controls, the protocol currently in force being considered too lax on the French side.
L’Aviron bayonnais thus had to deal with nine cases of British variant contamination among its players after the second day of the Challenge Cup, played on December 19 against the English Leicester.
Meeting Monday January 11 for other sports
The ministry’s communication compromises the holding of the next two days of the group stage of the two European rugby cups, scheduled for January 15-16-17 and 22-23-24.
In the Champions Cup, Toulon, Lyon, Montpellier and Racing 92 must respectively host Scarlets, Glasgow, WASPS and the Harlequins. Stade Toulousain is supposed to move on the ground of the English title holder Exeter, while the Clermontois must go to Ireland to face Munster and La Rochelle and Bègles-Bordeaux to move to Bath and Newport (Dragons)
The ministry also specifies in its press release that it has “initiated a census of all sporting events scheduled in France in the coming weeks including participants from the United Kingdom, as well as travel forecasts for French sports delegations on British soil. “
A meeting will be organized” from Monday “January 11 with the various sports federations and the event organizers concerned.