Covid casts shadow over Leinster and Wasps
Leinster were forced to cancel training ahead of their Champions Cup match with Montpellier on Friday, while Wasps are struggling to get a full team together for their trip to Toulouse.
Leinster opted to do without a light session and undergo further testing, with three players and one staff member testing positive last week and the threat of further positives hanging over the squad.
All the squad and staff went through a round of antigen and PCR testing at its training facility and training will resume if there are no more positives on Tuesday. More positive tests could put the match into danger.
Precaution
A Leinster statement read: “Given the positive Covid-19 cases in Leinster Rugby ahead of Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup game against Bath Rugby, Leinster Rugby will undergo another full round of antigen and PCR testing at its UCD base today.
“As a further precaution, until all results are confirmed, today’s training in UCD has been postponed until tomorrow.
“The IRFU and EPCR have been consulted in advance of this decision which has been taken in the best interests of Leinster Rugby players and staff.”
With injuries to key players such as Johnny Sexton and Jack Conan also robbing Leinster of precious experience for a difficult trip, coach Leo Cullen needs to keep a cool head and face whatever comes his way.
“It’s always concerning,” said Cullen to the Mirror. “Every day we’re in here, every one outside in society at the moment (is the same).
“From a personal point of view, I’ve young kids in school and, one of my kids in particular, in the pod, there was someone out with Covid so it always feels like it’s very very close at the moment.
“A couple of guys this week, it is what it is, thankfully they’re OK, we just manage them through. We’ve had some cases over the last while.
“I think back to last Christmas and that was quite a messy period, we lost a couple of people at that stage, particularly around the close contact bit as well.
“We’ve got a big group of players registered for Europe this year, way more than we would have had in the past so that certainly allows the teams much more flexibility as well.
“You know we’ve a lot of people through being tested and for the most part guys are OK. Thankfully even the guys who are the cases, the symptoms are very very mild, generally speaking, which is good.”
Meanwhile, Wasps’ injury problems are legend, even without the raft of positive tests that forced four players to withdraw on the eve of the match against Munster. They then lost Alfie Barbeary, Gabriel Oghre and Nizaam Carr to new injuries during the match, while Brad Shields is likely to be given a ban after his red card in the game.
Coach Lee Blackett had just 25 players to choose from before the Munster game and was philosophical when asked about preparations for this week.
“We’re now back to the numbers game,” Blackett told the BBC.
“We’ll have to go back to the sheds and look at our academy, as I don’t think we’ll have enough [players].
“I couldn’t see this Munster game going ahead after we got some results back late Friday night,” he added.
“We didn’t train and didn’t get the thumbs-up that the game would be on until late on Saturday night.
“We then had 25 players to pick from and it didn’t help losing Brad early on.
“Gabriel Oghre then felt something pop on his ankle and, with the other injuries, we’ll have to wait and see.
“But that is all we have left. And I don’t think we’ll have enough numbers, but we will see.”