Will resting players benefit Cas in the Cup final or should they have played something closer to their first choice 13 v Salford, as prep for the Cup Final.
Certainly two different approaches from Saints and Cas.

They rested players in their last game before the Cup semi, got thrashed but then beat Warrington so it's worked for them so far. Whether Saints will be as easy as the Wire to beat is doubtful.

I think the turnaround dictated - if we’d have played Salford Thursday/Friday instead of Sunday I think we’d have played a virtually full strength side. The lack of game time, for the first choice players, over the last few weeks worries me. Going into a cup final, against anyone, with a team that hasn’t played for weeks is a big gamble. I hope DP knows what he’s doing and the lads are prepared as we have certain players returning from injury straight into a Wembley side that haven’t had any game time for nearly 2 months! To say I’m a little nervous would be an understatement.

Seems they now don't fancy the trip to play Catalans. Questions need to be asked. Three staff members have tested positive and the articles about it state the whole club is now isolating. No doubt they will look to find enough close contacts to get them over the 7 player limit. Given they shared the coach to the ground, it shouldn't be hard to do.

Seeing as staff and academy players were on it outside the White Horse pre-Wembley it's no surprise. It's also no surprise that there seems little to no appetite to play another game in Super League.

Got to wonder if this will also hand Hull KR a win against Saints. If we're caught by the track and trace depending on how the players test at Cas, we could be fielding an academy team or calling the game off. Leeds will be livid if Hull KR get another win like this. Hard to see how Cas being rife won't throw up some issues.

Give Catalans the two points

How come some teams can’t field a team because of COVID and postpone the game and some forfeit the game does the RFL decide and what is the criteria?

You've got to have a minimum of 7 players either testing positive or isolating as a close contact. Academy players however do not count towards that number. So Cas against Saints had fewer than 7 with a positive test or isolating, but they had 14 injuries and their entire academy was isolating as well. Other teams get to the 7 player limit and can postpone the game, such as Warrington for your game as they have 9 with positive tests or isolating. The system isn't great and doesn't really encourage teams to fulfil fixtures. For me, the postponed games should count as a loss towards win % until the game played is played for the team requesting the postponement.

yes it's due to more testing using tests that cannot find infection, so are pretty much all false positives, however increased jab levels produce more ifluenza like illness.
the manufacturers of the experimental agent admit that having the jabs causes ILI - in 3,400 or 8% of the test subjects for Pfizer,
"Of note, approximately 3,400 or 8% of subjects 16 years or older experienced “suspected COVID-19” because they had symptoms but were not confirmed by testing for SARS-CoV-2; two of these cases required hospitalization, both of which were in the vaccinated group. These cases could represent other influenza-like illness and adverse events; 409 such cases occurred in the vaccinated group within seven days of injection "

So it's not 'covid' causing the rise in cases and you can't get zero coronvirus, as corona viruses were already 7-15% of all respiratory ailments in at least the previous 15 years, that's according to Univserity of Glasgow Centre for Virus Studies.
Keep using the fake tests and keep jabbing people and you will continue to have 'cases', despite there already been coronaviruses in the general population in any case. Attempting to get zero covid is not just insane, it's scientifically impossible.

And please don't start barking regards Taiwan, Australia etc, countries with hardly any flu/repsiratory illnesses to start with (in the case of australia)but ramp up the CT of PCR and you get loads of +, turn it down and you get hardly any. Turn it back up again post jab and blame a 'variant' or the unjabbed and you have precisely what we have now. That's before you ignore any Gompertz curve.

Utter anti science and malfeasance by the government for their sick and twisted ends.

There must be some doubts about the Saints v Hull KR game as Saints don't seem to be selling tickets for it. The sport appears to be in complete crisis and they need to get on a Zoom call and decide what they are going to do in order to ensure the competition is completed properly and that every game that possibly can be played is. Asking the players to go into Australia style bubbles and isolate to minimise cases would seem to be common sense.

Asking (some) players on 20-30k to basically put their life on hold ? RL in oz is their main sport and the players are minted, similar to football players here, RL players in the UK, which is a minority sport ain't going to agree to that especially as stuff opens up, summer holidays etc.

Though I agree the game is in big trouble because of covid. For me they need to look at the contact side of things and stick to testing rather than isolating.

Yeah, you're right. It's going to get even worse as the restrictions have been lifted now, so a lot of the players who don't believe in covid or vaccines will be out and about with no masks on and no social distancing and they won't be doing anything wrong by doing that.

They need to get the season completed with as many matches played as possible now crowds are allowed back. Sky seem annoyed at Super League, they're only televising one game a week now when they used to do as many as three and I think there is a limit where they can pull the funding. It must be crippling for the clubs financially as they're refunding the season ticket holders and missing out on ticket revenue and food/drink sales they could be making now. Surely the clubs could get together and agree as a competition that rather than isolating, they make close contacts train separately to the main group and test them twice daily or something like that. That's what my work is doing, probably illegal but there's a lot at stake if they keep calling games off because 7 are unavailable. My main point that clubs that can possibly get a side out should do so, even if it means losing. It looks like Saints are going to call off their next two home games, but I'd much prefer them to play them if they can.

Saints' attitude to international rugby this year has been appalling, they've refused to release players for England training camps and actively blocked any players joining the All Stars, they'd stop players playing in the World Cup if they thought it might impact them.

Cas are a miracle club, covid, injuries decimated then lazarus like full squad for wembley week, did a deal with covid then its back 4 days after. They'll name this the jungle variant of selective infections

Cas Tigers played same number of games as Wigan, Hudds and Wakey but seem to be at brunt for criticism.

I doubt very much they will pull any finding and damage the sport they've paid for for 2022 & 2023.....

SKY will get those two seasons at a much lower price, a very big saving, so no real chance they will hammer it now.....

Kick a dog whilst it's down?....... Not for me.

'Played' is a bit of stretch when 2 of those 14 games you're referring to were forfeited.

nope, 2 of those 14 games were 24-0 (one awarded to saints the other awarded to cas from hudds) so only played 1 more game the the 2 hull sides that have played the least

Cas Tigers fixtures 2021:-

Warrington H
Leeds A
HKR CC
Leigh H
Wigan A
Salford H
Salford CC
HKR H
Warrington A
Leeds H
Warrington CC
Hull H
Wakey A
Cats H
Saints Postponed
Hudds Postponed
Salford H
Saints CC

Played 16 out of 18 (16 out of 19 after this weekend). I recon that’s not too bad compared to some other SL sides.

Interesting that London have been docked 2 points for not fulfilling their fixture against Toulouse.

Cas is quite a unique place, with some unique variants at the best of times.



Seriously though, the mixing / commiserating after the final will have massively increased contacts, which inevitably, will increase cases/isolations.
It's true that the sport isn't wealthy enough to ask players to put their lives on hold but, as others have alluded to, Sky certainly aren't going to be happy when we keep on having games postponed and this will no doubt have a further detrimental effect on the next TV deal in just 2 years time.

Leigh next for Cas.

All be reet, with a full squad and 2 easy points !!

I’ll bet you it’s off Snowie. Postponed until we can put a team together.

Did you manage to put a team together for the C Cup final? I'm amazed why clubs can't seem to find a team to challenge the crappy Centurions. It all seems screwy to me.

Which is why I’m grad they had to travel back as losers.

Karma

Thanks for the team you put together against Salford !!!

Talk about nail in the coffin !