header | Robert Kitson


Months of concerted effort by all involved risks being buried beneath off-field confusion surrounding Sale

The knife-edge upon which professional rugby union is balancing grows more precarious by the day. As with many parts of the leisure industry, Covid-19 has ruthlessly exposed vulnerabilities that might otherwise have stayed hidden. It has also shone a harsh light on the sport’s administrators and the leadership – or lack of it – they have shown in the game’s starkest hour of need.

It cannot be easy and making certain decisions must have been painful. Not half as painful, sadly, as some of the muddle-headed thinking that has emerged. What price the credibility of the Premiership when even the teams involved have had no firm idea who they will meet in the semi-finals on Saturday, none of the coaches could prepare their teams satisfactorily and more than 12 months’ worth of concerted effort by all involved risks being buried beneath off-field confusion.

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