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Stranded Stormers star Jamie Roberts reveals 'the biggest worry' amid coronavirus outbreak in South Africa
By Online Editors
Former Wales and British and Irish Lions midfielder Jamie Roberts has revealed his biggest concern while stuck in South Africa amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The 33-year-old joined the Stormers from English Premiership club Bath shortly before the 2020 Super Rugby campaign kicked off in January, and has made a steady start to life with his new side in Cape Town.
However, the evolving outbreak of COVID-19 has seen circumstances change drastically throughout the Southern Hemisphere.
Super Rugby is now on hold indefinitely as New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Argentina and Japan have all placed restrictions of some kind for international travellers to try combat the virus.
Such restrictions have left the competition in limbo for the foreseeable future, with the Stormers stuck in seventh place after seven rounds of play.
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For Roberts, South Africa's closure of its borders with 60 known cases of coronavirus in the country means he can't return to his homeland for the time being - not that that is his primary concern.
"The main worry in South Africa is the quality of the healthcare system and people's access to it," the 97-cap international, who is a Cardiff University medical graduate, told The Daily Mail.
"I've only been here a few months. You just hope something as fast spreading as coronavirus doesn't get into the townships. That's the biggest worry here.
"There was a big announcement by the president on Sunday that they are closing the borders to people from high-risk countries. I was thinking of nipping back to Wales in April, but I can't do that now because I wouldn't be allowed back into South Africa.
"There are still huge question marks over whether Super Rugby will get finished. I think it's unrealistic to envisage us playing for another three or four weeks and by that time you are into mid-April. The tournament was meant to finish in the middle weekend of June.
"I can't see them fulfilling all their fixtures."
"The Stormers play the British & Irish Lions in the opening game of the 2021 tour and being a rugby romantic and having been on that tour in 2009, it would be pretty cool to get the chance to play against the Lions in South Africa," he said.
"We are having conversations about maybe doing that. The opportunity to keep on the adventure and maybe experience America or Japan would also be awesome."
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Latest Comments
I think we need to get innovative with the new laws.
Now red cards are only 20 minutes, Razor should send Finau on a head hunting mission to hospitalise their 10 with a shoulder to the chops.
Give the conspiracy theorists a win.
Go to commentsEngland played well enough to win but couldnt score when they needed to and couldnt defend a couple of X-Factor moments from Telea which was ultimately the difference. They needed to hold the ball more and make the AB's make more tackles. Territorially they were good for the first 60. Defending their lead and playing pragmatic rugby in the last 20 was silly. The AB's always had the potential to come back. England still have a long way to go, definite progress would have been shown had they won but it seems they are still stuck where they were shortly after the six nations and their tour to NZ
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