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Premiership statement: Gloucester-Worcester cancellation verdict
By Liam Heagney
Gloucester have had their Gallagher Premiership playoff qualification hopes boosted by the outcome of the investigation into the late cancellation of their home match last month versus Worcester. It was confirmed just five hours prior to the scheduled March 25 kickoff that the Warriors were unable to field the required six front row players in their matchday squad of 23.
It resulted in the cancellation of the fixture, a development that angered Gloucester as they were set to host an attendance in excess of 10,000 for the Friday night live TV match. Amid the fallout, they sought the award of all five match points to boost their challenge to make the semi-finals.
With the hearing into the match cancellation beginning on Tuesday in London, Worcester boss Steve Diamond predicted on Wednesday afternoon that the points decision would see Gloucester get four and the Warriors two. However, the incoming director of rugby at Sixways was proven wrong at 4:28pm on Thursday when Premiership Rugby published the outcome of the hearing conducted by an independent panel.
It decided that Gloucester should be awarded a 20-0 win and five match points, a decision that has lifted George Skivington's team from seventh to fifth place on the table and positioned them just two points behind fourth place Exeter with a game in hand.
A Premiership Rugby statement read: "Premiership Rugby can confirm that the independent panel has made its adjudication on the cancelled Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Gloucester and Worcester. In accordance with the Premiership Rugby regulations, Sport Resolutions was asked to form an independent panel to decide the result of the match, chaired by Gary Hickinbottom, and he was joined on the panel by Carol Couse and Jonathan Rennie.
"Worcester were unable to field the required six front row players for the Premiership Rugby match due to be played against Gloucester on Friday, March 25, resulting in the cancellation of the fixture. The independent Sport Resolutions panel has decided as follows: Under regulation 4.4(j)(iii), the match result shall be 20-0 in favour of Gloucester; and that, in respect of the match, Gloucester shall be awarded five league points.
"Regulation 4.4(j)(iii) states: Where the unfulfillment of a Premiership league match is due to the unavailability of players due to injury or unavailability (which is not related to Covid-19), the match result shall be 20-0 and five league points shall be awarded to the opposition club who could play the match.
"A reasoned decision will follow as soon as possible, and hopefully within the next week. That reasoned decision will incorporate this decision; and, for the avoidance of doubt, time for appealing under regulation 14.2 will start to run from the date of that reasoned decision. Premiership Rugby will publish the full judgement when completed by the panel."
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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