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Ross Sutherland's competitive season cancelled as Scottish Rugby call-off domestic 2020/21 campaign


By Andrew Henderson

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Scottish Rugby has confirmed that the 2020/21 club season has been cancelled.

A revised league campaign, accounting as far as possible for regionalisation as well as competitiveness, had been planned with the start date pushed back until January.

However, with the prevalence of Covid-19 remaining worryingly high in the central belt especially, the SRU this afternoon announced that it would not be possible to hold the campaign at all.

Highland Rugby Club will have to settle for friendlies over the coming months if they want to play matches.
Highland Rugby Club will have to settle for friendlies over the coming months if they want to play matches.

The decision affects all grassroots clubs and schools, although Super6 teams will continue to work towards a full fixture list starting at the end of March, should guidelines at that moment in time allow.

It is hoped that local friendly matches can go ahead where and when circumstances allow.

Today's announcement affects Ross Sutherland, who now face the disappointing prospect of no competitive rugby until the end of the summer next year after widespread changes at the club in 2020.

Scottish Rugby President, Ian Barr said in a statement: “After much careful ongoing consideration by the Scottish Rugby Council, who received a detailed briefing by colleagues in rugby development and updates from Scottish Rugby’s threat management group on the impact of current government restrictions, we took the difficult decision as a Council to recommend closing the 2020/21 domestic season, which the board then fully supported.

“We know many clubs and schools were looking forward to resuming competitive matches in the new year, but Covid-19 remains an active threat and we must act responsibly, putting the safety of our players, volunteers and their local communities first.

“We understand the decision will be disappointing, however it is important that we make the right choices to contribute to helping lower the infection rates and support public health guidelines, which can hopefully enable us to return to rugby fully at the right time.”


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