Like Ligue 1, the Top 14 is starting a year 2022 turned upside down by Covid-19 contaminations and stadium gauges. Meetings Toulon-La Rochelle and Toulouse-Montpellier, scheduled for Sunday on behalf of the 15th day, were postponed, the RCT and the MHR being “unable to play”, the National Rugby League announced on Friday.
Initially scheduled for Saturday, the trip from La Rochelle (5th, 36 pts) to Toulon (11th, 22 pts) had already been postponed by one day after the detection of “new positive cases” to Covid-19 within the RCT, which had around 20. According to the LNR press release, eight Toulon players would still have been in isolation at the time of the match and the Var club could not line up the six frontline players required by the regulations.
The shock between Toulouse (2nd, 41 pts) and Montpellier (3rd, 40 pts) is also reprogrammed.
For the Hérault club, which could not count on six frontline players either, it was 17 players who were positive for Covid-19 and isolated at the time of the match.
In total, since the start of the season, nine teams have at least one game late, the RCT being the club most affected since the reception of Stade Rochelais is its third postponed game.
Get out of the infernal spiral for Racing 92
Saturday the Racing 92 welcomes Clermont in its closed Arena with only 2,000 spectators, the gauge requires and whose entry is only reserved for subscribers and partners. The task will be difficult for Racing 92 which has not won in the championship for two months. After four consecutive defeats, the Ile-de-France residents are in 10th place. For his part, Clermont dreams of a second success in a row after his victory against Toulouse.
the French stadium (9th, 27 pts) will have a lot to do in front Castres (4th, 37 pts). Not only because the OC remains on three successes in a row in the league. Nor because the Parisians have won only one away game this season. No, the Tarnais have been undefeated at home since December 2020.
Perpignan and Biarritz, the promoted, find themselves for a crucial match between badly classified, more than ever in the quest for a success to leave the red zone. But neither of the two teams arrives serene with a record of two consecutive losses. Note that the BO has not beaten Usap in Top 14 since November 2012.
In the other meetings of the day, Lyon (6th, 35 pts) receives Pau (13, 28 pts) while Bordeaux-Begles (1st, 46 pts) goes to Brive (12th, 21 pts) to consolidate his chair as leader.
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