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Rugby News: Monday 1 June


Darry Worthington takes a look at the rugby news that has made the headlines over the past week. 

While COVID-19 has put a hold to all rugby fixtures around the globe, there’s still a lot of rugby news doing the rounds at the moment. The big news stories of the week are the successful return of NRL, Nigel Owen’s backing the implementation of an orange card, a possible big change to the South African rugby calendar and South African rugby sides given the all-clear to return to training.

Owens Set to Show Orange
Vastly experienced Welsh ref, Nigel Owens, has given his backing to the IRB’s new orange card law. The law would see referees issue an orange card for certain high tackle with players who infringe spending 15 minutes in the sin bin.

On top of this, the tackle can then be reviewed, while the player is in the sin bin, and it can then be upgraded to a red card.

NRL Sets the President
Last week saw a successful return to play for the Australian National Rugby League. The third round of the tournament went off without a hitch and produced some fantastic rugby action that will have quelled rugby fans thirst for rugby action.

A lot of work hand gone in to get the league back up and running again with numerous COVID-19 tests and precautions being taken.

With Super Rugby Aotearoa set to start next week and Australia’s Super Rugby product getting underway in July, a lot can be learned from the way in which NRL has gone about getting their code back up and running.

A Currie Cup-Filled Christmas
South African rugby fans may get something of a late rugby present for Christmas this year with a few local newspapers reporting that the Currie Cup could be played over the festive season.

It’s not the worst idea, especially if this year’s Rugby Championship gets pushed back to next year March as it would give players time to get ready for the rigors of international rugby.

SA Teams Get Back to Training
Sticking with the South African them and there was some good news this week with the Ministry of Sports announcing that professional sports teams could return to training.

While there’s still some way to go for contact sports like rugby to resume full training, it is a step in the right direction in terms of the sports eventual return.

SARU CEO Jurie Roux had this to say after the announcement “This is the news sport has been waiting to hear as it allows us to begin to ramp up preparations for an eventual return-to-play,”

“We submitted a comprehensive, staged return-to-play protocols document to the department five weeks ago and we are ready to begin medical screening of players immediately.

“We will seek further clarity from the department on the application of the guidelines as they apply to contact training.

“But this is an opportunity for our players to enhance their lockdown training regimes by increasing their fitness work for an eventual return to play.”

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