British clubs’ fears of enduring a 48 hour quarantine on arrival in France have been assuaged after the French government announced they would relax restrictions for vaccinated British travellers from Friday.
Bath, Sale, Newcastle and Scarlets all have games scheduled in France this weekend, but those matches were in serious doubt whilst France continued to impose strict restrictions in response to the omicron variant of Covid-19.
However, Thursday’s announcement will mean that the British clubs can travel and play without the threat of quarantine, provided all those involved are vaccinated.
The lifting of restrictions will hopefully mean that fans can enjoy some European rugby after what has been a turbulent start to the European season in both the Champions’ and Challenge Cup.
In December seven matches were postponed due to Covid-19 and on Tuesday the decision was made to cancel, with the teams involved all awarded two points.
The EPCR ( European Professional Club Rugby), the competitions’ organisers, have not given a definitive answer as to whether the games will go ahead. However, when asked on Wednesday, Sale’s Director of Rugby, Alex Sanderson was confident their match would go ahead.
“I haven’t spoken to EPCR directly, but on the back of all the communication we’ve had this far, we are very positive,” he said.
“We have chartered a plane and sorted the hotel.”
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Sale make the trip to Clermont, Newcastle go to Biarritz, Bath face last year’s runners up La Rochelle and Scarlets confront Top 14 leaders Bordeaux-Begles, provided the EPCR give the green light.
