So you want them to change the rules mid-season?
I'm sure you wouldn't be on here complaining about what a farce THAT was if they did that.

No. It should have been the rule from the beginning of the season. You don't need to be Nostradamus to have foreseen this issue.

The covid issue was foreseen. That's why the % rule was brought in by SL/ the clubs.

But that’s my point - the percentage rule is ridiculous. Did they foresee one team winning more games than another but finishing below them because they’ve played more games? Potentially very unfair and robs the league of integrity and credibility.

OK well, the league and the clubs came up with a solution to a problem facing sports all over the world. They adopted a solution similar to sports all over the world.
The alternative is awarding walkovers but, given we know that Covid can be proven and the tracing system is hard to manipulate, they went for a system which doesn't penalise clubs for an outbreak. That to most reasonable observers would be a fair system, and certainly was what the clubs wanted.

It was and is totally transparent, was voted for by the clubs, was made clear before the season started, hasn't been changed since then and really doesn't merit the sort of outrage you for some reason are summoning up.

What a massive co incidence that a club, struggling with suspensions and injuries to their best players, get the magic number of exactly 7 for positive tests/close contact, a day after they were in the market for loan players and hence, game postponed

Game is a laughing stock

I think it can penalise the none offending clubs, if they play less games that potentially reduces their percentage points. Do you honestly believe that the testing track and trace system used by our sport is foolproof? I don’t. I’m old enough to realise and seen that any system can be abused.

So, Salford, who tried to get the game postponed previously (because they couldnt raise a side, primarily due to injuries and suspensions, miraculously find that they hit the covid threshold for a postponement, and this, with a home fixture against one of their fellow "strugglers".
Yep, it's just one of those things. Why on earth would anyone suggest otherwise.

Perhaps, if RL did follow the Union example (and award the other side a 24 - 0 victory), it would ensure that all clubs were kept "honest".

As for the protocols, how difficult would it be to say that player "X" had been involved in certain drills or spent time with other affected players ?

So you're suggesting a system that forces teams to field potentially infectious players just so they don't lose points that might get them relegated though no fault of their own

Bingo.
People saying clubs will fix it so players aren't able to play simultaneously think we should arrange a system which encourages them to bend the rules so that potential spreaders of Covid play ?

Let's face it the RFL and Super League simply can't win with this stuff. The people who are trolls or who will always criticise no matter what happens will use this as yet another thing to beat up on the sport for.

I’m not a Troll, I just have a different opinion, I believe the current Covid system used by the RFL/SL is open to misuse and abuse by clubs who could gain an advantage by their actions.

Not at all.
IF Salford have numbers of "infectious" players, NOBODY is suggesting they should play, quite the contrary.
The issue here is the utter "convenience" of the covid "contacts", for a club that cant buy a win, has a few injuries and a number of suspensions, with a "must win" home fixture.
As I said earlier, it looks like a fish, flaps like a fish and smells very fishy.

Anyway, the game is postponed, end of.

At least your injury situation should improve over the next week or so.

I have no allegiance to Salford, far from it and I agree that teams could use this to manipulate / overegg the situation to suit them but the alternative would essentially make it advantageous to play a player who should isolate and err on the side of risky. Its a rubbish time I'm afraid .

Just to be clear, you can see why there would be an issue IF a club fielded an infected player but, you cant see any advantage in hyping the numbers if your squad was busted / suspended to achieve a postponement.

How very strange



For the record there is a HUGE reason for Salford wanting to play this fixture when their squad is healthy and without suspensions.
Salford currently sit 11th in the table, just 4 points clear of bottom spot and Trinity at home "should" be one of the easiest 3 games of the season for them. Aside from Huddersfield at home, KR at home and Leigh away, everything else looks very, very difficult for them and should they come unstuck at Leigh, which will be like a cup final, where do they even try to take some league points ?

Are you getting a whiff of anything yet ?

My only thought on the matter is the fact that the clubs who seem to be having their games postponed our written off are pretty much the same as last season. Have they as clubs learned nothing about protecting their players from Covid, or is it just a coincidence !!

Also for the conspiracy theorists amongst us, should Salford and Leigh end up on the same number of points, Salford have the advantage of less games played.

As far as I know no club is telling their players not to mix with their partners and children so they are all going to face a level of risk that is outside the control of any club.
If there is a correlation, it is most likely coincidence or linked to the level of Covid in the towns the players live in.

It's linked to more numerical testing of inviduals using tests that can't detect infection (and aren't designed to detect infection), so continual testing of persons with tests that have a massively high false positive rate (as admitted by PHE, Hancock and Johnson etc) the more likely you'll get a 'case', but that case or cases are FP,
it's a matter of numbers and using a testing regime that has a designed 'flaw' in it, it's not players doing anything wrong

Great post, but they face an even bigger disaster off the pitch than relegation on it.............

Bigger still if they are relegated !

Fixtures have been postponed due to Covid that are in accordance with RFL's Multiple Case Framework. Castleford's situation is different (same as Salford against Wire last season), in that absenteeism isn't down to Covid, and the points were awarded to their opponents.

Not sure we can change the RFL's rules so that you can have the points going to the opposition, when were trying to stop the spread of infection.

I'd just like to congratulate the Castleford Tigers conditioning team on their fantastic effort to get a near full fit squad for the Hudds game this Tuesday. A master stroke by Powell not wanting to play Saints.

Have they really done that?

Farcical. Hudds should do a Salford.

Yes



A proper p-take this one