Gloucester CEO expects season to be finished

David Skippers

Finishing the rest of the 2019/20 Premiership season on the pitch is still a realistic prospect, according to Gloucester Rugby CEO Lance Bradley.

Bradley believes completing the current campaign, which has been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, remains a priority and said playing matches behind closed doors is still a reasonable solution.

Although Bradley admitted that he doesn’t believe next season will be ‘compromised’, he doesn’t expect it to be a ‘perfectly normal one’.

He said all Premiership matches can be played, both the current season and the next one, but clubs will have to regularly use a bigger pool of players than they would usually.

“We will probably find that we use our whole squad more than we would have done,” Bradley told ITV.

“If we finish this season and then go into next season it’s going to mean a fairly intensive run of games and you have to make sure that you manage that properly.

“You can’t expect the same players to turn out every week on that kind of basis so we would be using more of our academy players than we would have done.

“I think everybody’s prepared to make some compromises to get the best possible outcome we can, which is to finish this season and have a proper season next season.”

The biggest issue facing clubs at the moment is the lack of certainty and although there are a number of scenarios being planned for, Premiership Rugby are suggesting a return to action by the first week of July as the best case scenario.

Clubs were informed that the league has had encouragement from the government that this might be possible. The news will certainly excited bettors.

If that materialises, it would mean players will be back in training at the start of June, as Premiership Rugby and World Rugby require a month of contact training before a competitive match can be played.

The current situation is a difficult one for everybody and mental health issues have been highlighted during this period.

Bradley said his club is aware that the effect of the lockdown might affect the mental health of people and said plans are being made try to diminish the matter.

“Any professional sports club is an intense, highly stimulating atmosphere and then suddenly we’re all at home,” he added.

“If you’re a professional athlete that’s quite tough. We’ve made sure we’re staying in touch with the players, before the lockdown we gave them suggested programmes to keep themselves fit. I know that they’re all talking to each other.

“We’re trying to interact with fans as well, re-running classic matches, keeping people engaged and just trying to make sure people are okay.

“The players have been phoning some of our older fans, and that’s good not just for the fans but for the players as well.”