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SA Rugby issues warning as tightheads blamed for latest Unlocked cancellation

(Photo by Frikkie Kapp/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Players and team managements in South Africa have been warned over their behaviour after a third match of the Super Rugby Unlocked tournament was cancelled on Tuesday – the Sharks were due to host the Stormers in Durban on Saturday but it has been called off following positive tests among the Sharks tighthead props.

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The cancellation is the third in recent weeks following the cancellation of the Lions matches against the Cheetahs and the Pumas, and the evolving situation has resulted in a caution being issued by SA Rugby to practice strict Covid-compliance measures to minimise the risk of further infection.

“Players and management are urged to employ extreme caution in their social engagement,” said Jurie Roux, SA Rugby CEO.

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A toast to Argentina following their win over the All Blacks

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A toast to Argentina following their win over the All Blacks

“It only takes one careless interaction by a single player to have the knock-on effect that impacts on 45 other players, team managements, the schedule and potentially the destination of the title.

“As fit young athletes, it may be tempting to think that they are ‘immune’ to infection and are free of comorbidities that make them vulnerable. But a positive test for one of them can have massive repercussions. I trust that team managements will underline that message on a daily basis to their playing personnel.”

Elsewhere, the Pumas match against the Bulls – scheduled for Friday evening in Pretoria – has been pushed back until Saturday for player welfare reasons (kick-off time to be confirmed).

The Pumas squad, which returned several positive tests last week, will be re-tested on Thursday. The results will be known on Friday, allowing time for a training session after ten days in isolation before meeting the Bulls on Saturday.

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The Bulls currently lead the way in the seven-team Super Rugby tournament with four wins from five outings, two points clear of the second-place Stormers and the third-place Sharks who are now both idle next weekend. 

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J
JW 3 hours ago
Why the Aussie revival is for real and what it means for New Zealand

Yes, true, reading your first sentence I immediately remember reports of them just leaving them be, which also doesn’t sound very smart now. Quite a minor thing, but like with the “further stipulations” suggestion I had, even minor oversights can cause big problems!


Right, so that old decision basically came down to the Rebels license being newer (still in effect) that meant it was the Force that had to be cut? You can’t really extrapolate one to the other of course. Theres no hindsight ability to be able to say “well we should have taken out losses and cut the Rebels”.


I can agree on your last point/para, even though it’s largely the same argument you presented in your OP which I tried refuting. I say it’s similar really because it comes under the same ‘risk’ management as spreading your pro population. They wanted to be able to provide more opportunities to retain the likes of the Meafou’s, just as much as the wanted to tap in further to those Meafou’s in Melbourne. Bringing in the Rebels was the best way to do this, but perhaps it should’t have been done at such a sacrifice.


All considered though, it’s hard to know if one should believe the reports that the Rebels had a way out of the dilemma. They obviously had individuals involved powerful enough to make the State retaliate towards RA, but my stance had been that COVID and so, the stopped payment, had been what put them under. I don’t lay fault with RA for their demise, but I also had a bigger expectation that Melbourne was the sporting captial of Australia. It really does just seem like a AFL land however (they reckoned their 10k crowd was enough but it’s hard to believe).

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