Champions Cup & Challenge Cup suspended

Heineken Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup suspended temporarily

No surprise at all. Here in France, Leicester Tigers have been very, very heavily criticized for bringing the 'English variant' over here when they played Bayonne in the Challenge Cup. There's now a serious outbreak in Bayonne and the south west. The FFR were furious and complained that the English clubs had much lower testing and isolation protocols that they did, hence the problem. No idea about the truth of that however. Whatever, I think everyone needs to simply accept that this season is over at many levels.

marigold wrote: Strange decision by PRL today to now NOT bring 2 fixtures forward for the now vacant Saturday's and instead to give the clubs two weeks off. A number of the clubs have already had time off recently due to covid cases plus this will add pressure at the end of the season. Not sure the broadcasters will be happy as some big gaps to fill. Not sure I am happy as watching matches on Friday night , Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon had become the highlights of the weekend. Am I missing something?

Rugby?

Not utilising these 2 weeks for EPL raises the question of how they will fit in the Champions Cup at a later date - unless the Lions tour is cancelled/postponed

Edited by Raider999 - 12 Jan 2021 at 11:07

WEvans wrote: In my opinion very sensible to have a two week break when people can stay at home in the current Covid situation rather than have rugby teams, broadcasters and all the associated support people travelling up and down the country.

This is probably right but the general benefit of seeing rugby on TV each weekend has genuinely helped me during this period. I don't know how many would be involved but there could be great public benefit in moving elite sportsmen & women (and if need be the associated TV & support staff) up the vaccination pecking order to enable them to maintain fixtures which could then be streamed for supporters to see on a pay per view basis. Probably yet another daft idea which I would not promote if it materially delayed the vaccine roll out to really vulnerable groups. Presumably if the elite players etc were vaccinated it would reduce the need to test them regularly - but this could also be wrong. Stay safe all Spring is coming and the snowdrops are blooming in St Ouen. 

It certainly is a difficult situation and IMHO there is little chance of ALL competitions ( Prem/Euro/6 N/ Lions) being started let alone completed.

Heineken Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup pool matches will not be rearranged

Recent news about Euro 2021 ( Football) scheduled for June doesn't bode well for Euro Rugby finals in May.

There won’t be any spectators in a rugby ground until 2022

I think some will not have had their first jab by May. 

The Champions and Challenge Cups will resume in April with a knockout round of 16, after the final two rounds of pool matches in January were cancelled. European organisers have confirmed the top eight teams in Pool A and top eight teams in Pool B have qualified for the last 16 of the Champions Cup. Any team who won two pool games on the pitch will get a home fixture. The last-16 draw will take place on 9 March with the matches being played on the first weekend of April.