12.00 today is the deadline :
Sale Sharks face 64-hour break before Premiership semi-finals
Wednesday October 07 2020, 12.01am, The Times
The disruption caused by Covid-19 to the end of the Gallagher Premiership’s league phase could affect the semi-finals this weekend after Premier Rugby announced that both play-off matches will be held on Saturday afternoon.
Sale Sharks, whose final league game at home to Worcester Warriors was postponed until this evening after an outbreak of coronavirus among their players, are understood to be concerned about the impact on player welfare of the short turnaround before the play-offs if they can clinch a top-four place with a victory over Worcester.
The first semi-final, between Wasps and either Bristol or Sale, will kick off at the Ricoh Arena, less than 64 hours after this evening’s game will have concluded. The second semi-final kicks off three hours later between Exeter Chiefs and one of Bath, Bristol or Sale. The revelation that three Northampton Saints players had been diagnosed with coronavirus after playing against Sale last Tuesday night has left tonight’s game in the balance.
The fixture was postponed after 19 people at Sale, 16 of whom were players, tested positive last week. Sale have pledged to forfeit the game if an additional positive result is recorded. Premier Rugby expects to receive the results of the Sale tests by noon today.
If there are no further positive tests, a decision will be made by Premier Rugby in conjunction with Public Health England and the RFU, which has been investigating the source of the outbreak, as to whether the game can go ahead.
However, Worcester will also consider their options. The club have serious reservations about playing the fixture, which escalated after Sale named a team that included 13 players who featured against Northampton.
Northampton’s three confirmed positive cases include Lewis Ludlam and Piers Francis, who dropped out of the England camp yesterday. Worcester are thought to have concerns over the presence in the Sale team of props Ross Harrison and Valery Morozov, who both played at Franklin’s Gardens last week. Worcester requested details of Sale’s track-and-trace protocols and wanted assurances that there had been no contact between the players selected for tonight’s game and those who tested positive last week. That information was given to Worcester last night.
Always a Wasp