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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
Sad but unfortunately true as long as negativity is rewarded and positivity " penalised"
Go to comments“Explain clearly how that’s not an achievement?”
It is an achievement. It is less of an achievement than he managed with Barcelona. You said that ”He has gotten better with age. By every measure.” He hasn’t. Doesn’t mean he isn’t still extremely good though!
”I thought you don’t care what certain managers did 10 years ago…”
are you really this incapable of understanding the context of what I’m saying? My point is that Gatland was a good coach ten years ago, and isn’t a good coach now. So what he did ten years ago is relevant to whether he was good ten years ago - that is pretty basic stuff.
On the other hand, what Les Kiss did ten years ago isn’t relevant to how good he is now, just as what Gatland did ten years ago isn’t relevant to how good he is now.
”So you haven’t watched even a minute of Super Rugby this year?”
I was replying to your comment, given you have the memory of a goldfish and are unable to scroll up, I’m remind you what you said:
“Ireland won a long over due slam in 2009. The last embers of a golden generation was kicked on by a handful of young new players and a new senior coach. Kiss was brought in as defence coach and was the reason they won it. They’d the best defence in the game at the time. He all but invented the choke tackle. Fittingly they backed it up in the next world cup in their 2011 pool match against… Australia. The instantly iconic image of Will Genia getting rag-dolled by Stephen Ferris.”
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