Two more Super League fixtures postponed
St Helens’ home game against Huddersfield on Wednesday and Castleford’s scheduled visit to Leigh on Thursday have both been called off, taking the number of casualties in Super League so far this season to 17.
St Helens and Castleford have not played since meeting each other in the Betfred Challenge Cup final on July 17 after experiencing Covid-19 outbreaks.
Saints have confirmed eight positive cases among players and staff following the latest round of testing and say that has led to the majority of the first team squad being forced into isolation.
Castleford say they are also dealing with a significant number of positive cases among their playing and coaching group.
The postponed round 16 fixtures will be added to the list for possible rearrangement, although the Super League table is to be determined by win points percentage to allow for the possibility of not all fixtures being fulfilled.
Clubs, who can seek a postponement if at least seven of their top 25 players are unavailable due to Covid protocols, still need to play a minimum of 18 fixtures to qualify for the play-offs but that may change.
Champions St Helens are currently six fixtures short of reaching the target and the first round of play-off matches are due to be played on the weekend of September 24.
Meanwhile, promotion and relegation to and from Super League is still set to go ahead at the end of the season.
There has been some conjecture over whether the goal posts will once again be moved, including an erroneous report by the BBC on their live Challenge Cup final coverage that relegation will not take place this year.
But officials from the RFL and Super League have confirmed to us that there have been no formal discussions around removing relegation.
An RFL spokesperson said: “There is no change – it’s still one up, one down.
“There has been acknowledgement from Super League, and an emphasis from us, that Championship clubs can’t be blamed (for the impact of COVID) and that promotion can’t be affected.”