Bordeaux (AFP)
Bayonne, which could not play the last two days of Top 14 due to several cases of Covid-19, was affected by the British variant of the virus, the Basque club confirmed on Saturday.
The cases of Covid-19 which have affected Rowing since Christmas week do indeed come from the British strain of the virus, contracted during the trip to Leicester in the European Challenge on December 19, Rowing bayonnais told AFP, confirming information from France Bleu.
Two new cases appeared Thursday, one among the players, another in the staff, bringing the number of contaminations to ten.
All are asymptomatic.
The last tests carried out on Saturday were negative.
On Saturday, the regional health agency (ARS) made new arrangements by closing the club's facilities for a period of seven additional days since the last case identified, i.e. until Thursday, January 7 inclusive.
The match scheduled for Toulon the next day counting for the 14th day of Top 14 has a good chance of being also postponed, Yannick Bru's team having been deprived of training since December 23.
"It is out of the question (to go to Toulon), the health of my players is at stake", warned President Philippe Tayeb, who does not take offense: "we are compromising our season", allusion to the two postponements of the Rowing matches against Castres (December 27) and Pau (January 2).
"We asked our players to be vigilant, to isolate themselves, and they did. And now we find ourselves in this situation because the protocol of the EPCR (organizer of the European Cup) n 'is not the same ", continued the leader who plans not to compete in the rest of the European Challenge.
"In the current state, we will not play the European Cup", he concluded.
© 2021 AFP