Rainbow Cup: SA teams forced to stay at home
PRO14 Rugby and SA Rugby have announced dual Rainbow Cup tournaments with no cross-hemisphere fixtures.
The South African team are not able to enter the UK and Ireland due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Multiple options for the South African teams to travel safely to Europe and be based in the UK were explored but could not be put into practice due to the heightened restrictions caused by South Africa’s designation as a ‘red list’ territory in terms of Covid-19 risk,” SA Rugby said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Sharks, Stormers, Lions and Bulls will instead play a ‘southern’ tournament, called the Rainbow Cup SA.
The four teams will take on each other over a double round of home and away action over seven weeks.
The ‘northern’ Guinness PRO14 Rainbow Cup will still take place on the dates previously published with the fixtures involving the South African teams removed from the schedule.
“This is a huge disappointment, but time had simply run out,” said SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux.
“No stone was left unturned to try and find a solution to the challenges – including basing our teams for 10 days in locations in the Middle East or Europe. But the pieces of the jigsaw would not fall into place in time to allow us to put those plans into action.”
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