Integrity of the Premier 15s in the spotlight after two England women's players test...

[ASFN Admin]

Questions are growing over the integrity of the Premier 15s after it emerged two England women's players tested positive for coronavirus before the squad's national camp earlier this week. Both cases have been confirmed by the Rugby Football Union, with a third player also unable to attend the camp at England’s Pennyhill Park base in Bagshot due to being a household contact. Under international protocols, women's players must be tested before national camps, unlike in England's elite domestic league, which has been allowed to continue with adapted law variations during the lockdown. It comes as Harlequins' fixture with Wasps became the latest Premier 15s game to be postponed on Friday, just days after Harlequins player and US international Kristine Sommer questioned whether it was safe for the league to continue without coronavirus testing. Sommer wrote on social media: “I’ll say it 100,000 times how grateful I am to play rugby in the UK, but when is player safety a concern? No real bubbles - no testing. This should be discussed, right?” On the same day that London mayor Sadiq Khan declared a major incident in the capital - where case numbers have exceeded 1,000 per every 100,000 people - Harlequins’ cited "ongoing Covid-19 concerns" within its camp as the reason for the cancellation.

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