The Future Ain't What It Used to Be

The immediate future for professional rugby in the northern hemisphere is as uncertain as ever following confirmation that both European club competitions have been suspended and the announcement yesterday by Premiership Rugby of a two-week break in the competition.

The European suspension is understandable given the anxiety in France over the possible cross-border spread of the new Covid-19 variant, but it seems as if the PRL decision was made in spite of calls from a number of Premiership clubs to fill the void with domestic league fixtures.

Who knows whether the decision to suspend will prove to be correct, but what is clear is that BT Sport now has a sizeable gap in its broadcast schedule which may well end up costing the clubs financially, something they can ill afford at the moment.

Recent developments also throw into doubt the whether the rapidly approaching 2021 Six Nations can take place as planned. At the time of blogging there do not appear to be any plans to postpone the competition but, as events over the last few days have shown, it is very much a question of watch this space. 

I think it’s fair to say that we cannot take anything for granted as far as the future is concerned.

Total Flanker – the older I get, the better I was