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

I might been eating my own words as we haven't yet released our squad for Tuesday.
Maybe Watson playing the master stroke by not playing Cas but saving (resting) the players for Wigan next Sunday?

Cas were unable to field a full team due to 'covid' rules stopping the fit players at the club not being allowed to play, if you only have 14 fit players and a significant portion of them are kids, that then becomes a player welfare issue IMO.
That the RFL state it's only senior players that are included in the covid rules to be able to have the game postponed not cancelled is a disgrace, if youth system players are unavailable due to the covid rules then surely that should be also considered when senior players are injured!
People stating that Cas have done miracles re getting players fit clearly have no idea regards injuries, 8 full days and still you don't know if players are playing through injury. Again it comes down to player welfare, force players to play before they are ready then look on in amazement when they break down, are out for even longer or worse sustain an even worse injury than the original.

So Huddersfield having to play 3 times in 12 days while having 6 on international duty, 12 out injured and a covid outbreak is not a player welfare issue then but Cas's was?

Everyone knows they played the system to save their players and be fresher as they expected to lose to saints so were happy to lose 24-0 to save there players, it's a farce but there is no punishment for this sort of thing to stop them.

That's not what the rule says.

It's players registered to the first team squad - this list is submitted at the beginning of the season.

Cas have a minimum of 32 players registered.

Amazing how they are all fit the week after being unfit to play against the league leaders and current champions, Saints.

Rugby league is a joke in this country.

Now the Giants are playing the system!

I never said your club didn't have a layer welfare issue did I so stop making it out I said that!
How many players did your team have available to play though, oh that's right, at least 17. Is it fair you had to play 3 in 12, no, but we're talking about a club that physically didn't have enough players to field a 17, not even close.

Cas and Huddersfield could both have fielded teams and should both be heavily fined.

The sport needs to wake up. Cheating your way to a minor advantage might seem like a great idea, but every incident of this is chipping away at the waning support for the game. Super League has descended into an absolute mess this year.

If I were in charge of Sky, I'd pull the TV deal. It's not a product worth investing in.

Huddersfield have one positive pcr year and 4 stood down from that.

Another player showing symptom but as yet no confirmation from a PCR.

I guess that pending the result of that other player is what will decide if it’s 24-0 awarded or not.

If the player doesn’t test positive that’s only 5 so would have to concede the win.