OPINION: Lions and Sharks being punished by URC postponements

The Lions and Sharks are effectively being punished by the United Rugby Championship after their round six clashes against the Glasgow Warriors and Ulster respectively were postponed on Friday afternoon.

In a busy season that sees both teams set to compete in the Challenge and Championship Cup competitions, as well as the local Currie Cup, they will now have to fit in the two rescheduled matches at some point.

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The Glasgow and Ulster teams were impacted by gastroenteritis infections across both of their squads in the lead up to their games in Johannesburg and Durban, but there has been a lot of secrecy about what caused the infections.

Some have speculated that it was due to both teams swimming in the Durban sea, with most beachfronts in the city closed due to very high levels of E.coli in the water, although both teams have denied this.

Where exactly they then picked up the stomach bug is anyone’s guess as both sides have been in Johannesburg and Durban, but in different weeks, and how both picked up a bug that essentially decimated both playing squads, but does not seem to have affected any locals is perplexing.

Thorough investigation

The URC should do a thorough investigation on the matter, and if it emerges that the stomach bug was picked up due to negligence by the traveling teams, then it would only be fair to give the Lions and Sharks the points for the cancelled games.

However if there was no negligence from the traveling sides and they both somehow picked up the same bug due to other means, it would be understandable for the points to either be shared, or the games postponed and rescheduled as it seems will be the case.

The URC should thus come clean on the matter, once it is definitively established how the teams were infected, and explain their reasoning for the games being rescheduled.

Otherwise it is essentially the Lions and Sharks who are being punished through no fault of their own, as they have to now fit in these two matches, in a very busy season, and at a time that may not be fair on either team.