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PRO14 confirms restart fixtures but there continues to be a South African delay
By Online Editors
Guinness PRO14 officials have finally confirmed its exact fixtures schedule for next month's restart of the suspended 2019/20 season, the five-country league getting underway on Friday, August 21, with an Italian derby featuring Benetton and Zebre in Treviso.
Three games will follow on the Saturday, Scarlets hosting Cardiff Blues in Llanelli, Edinburgh taking on Glasgow at Murrayfield and Leinster hosting Munster at the Aviva Stadium. The restart weekend then concludes on the Sunday with Ospreys hosting Dragons in Swansea followed by the meeting of Connacht and Ulster in Dublin.
However, while there has been a green light for the resumption of the league in Italy, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the two participating South African clubs, Cheetahs and South Kings, will remain idle as the ongoing pandemic is too severe yet in that country for rugby to restart just yet.
Cheetahs and Kings were supposed to play each other twice on consecutive weekends but that will not be possible in August. It's a delay, though, that won't affect the knockout stage scheduling as both teams are not in contention for the semi-finals on the weekend of September 5.
A statement from the PRO14 read: "At this point, no dates have been fixed for the Guinness PRO14 derby games between the Cheetahs and Southern Kings. Due to the current conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa, both teams have only been allowed to return to non-contact training this week. PRO14 Rugby remains in constant dialogue with SA Rugby and the clubs and aim to identify appropriate dates for the two derbies when possible."
Tournament director David Jordan added: “So far we have been encouraged by the developments that have allowed all of our teams to return to training. Thanks to the great efforts of our clubs and unions, the willingness of governments and the support of our broadcasters we now have a fixture list to look forward to.
“Everyone who makes our games possible has had to adapt to a new way of working under the restrictions of the pandemic and the response of all our key stakeholders has been very impressive. With these fixtures now confirmed we are all geared to the safe delivery of these games and to the welcome return of rugby after such a long period without the sport.”
Guinness PRO14 Restart Fixtures
Round 14
Friday, August 21: Benetton Rugby v Zebre | Stadio Monigo, Treviso at 19:00 (20:00 ITA).
Saturday, August 22: Scarlets v Cardiff Blues | Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli at 15:00 UK; Edinburgh v Glasgow Warriors | BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh at 17:15; Leinster v Munster | Aviva Stadium, Dublin at 19:35.
Sunday, August 23: Ospreys v Dragons | Liberty Stadium, Swansea at 14:15; Connacht v Ulster | Aviva Stadium, Dublin at 16:30 (live on TG4).
Round 15
Friday, August 28: Glasgow Warriors v Edinburgh | BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh at 19:35.
Saturday, August 29: Dragons v Scarlets | Rodney Parade, Newport at 17:15; Ulster v Leinster | Aviva Stadium, Dublin at 19:35.
Sunday, August 30: Munster v Connacht | Aviva Stadium, Dublin at 15:00; Cardiff Blues v Ospreys | Rodney Parade, Newport at 17:00; Zebre v Benetton Rugby | Stadio Lanfranchi, Parma at 19:00 UK (20:00 ITA).
Guinness PRO14 Final Series
Semi-Finals: To be played on the weekend of September 4/5/6.
Finals: To be played on Saturday, September 12.
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Latest Comments
I think England obviously need to train alot more to fix their defense. Time together working to ensure each defender takes the right man is paramount or we're going to see the same amount of tries and losses. Then what? Sack the coach? What a joke that would be. The other fix is being accurate with your basics. England were sloppy to excess, dropped balls in the midfield. Charged down boxkicks, failed restarts. They need to carry out their basic skills accurately. This is a domestic club training responsibility. England should not be teaching their players catching skills. If the clubs are not spending time with skills training then the players need to step up and do it on their own time. There is no excuse for sloppy play at Test match level. They won't win squat if they don't aspire to be the best. Lastly we have the scrum which should be a strength of England but its flakey as. Okay its year one of the world cup cycle and you'd rather have these issues now that 2026 / 27 but we have alot to fix and we also have a media who won't give Borthwick the time he needs to fix them. That paragon of rugby Ugo Monye is already screaming for Borthwick's head. 14 caps and two tries and apparently he's the rugby media mesiah... ...This is where you say he's not the mesiah, he's a very naughty boy.
Go to commentsBen Smith your a biased against the Springboks -making it so obvious as a journalist makes you totally inadequate and not worthy of being taken seriously.
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