The 21st day of Top 14, which was partially disputed this weekend, marked the great return of the Covid as a disruptive element of the Championship. Only three out of seven matches were able to be played and the end-of-season schedule, which was up to date, is again overloaded. These new postponements generate their share of questions. When will Agen-UBB and Montpellier-Toulon be able to play? The League imagined the first of May as a fallback weekend, but Bordelais and Héraultais will play their European semi-final on that date.
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Moreover, if new regular phase matches were to be postponed and the calendar no longer had openings, what would happen? Would the teams declaring forfeit lose the match on the green carpet, or would an equalization system decide between the candidates? For the final stages, this same type of question may arise. On Saturday, Canal + indicated that the League would soon formalize the fact that a team qualified for the finals but unable to play because of the Covid would be replaced by the top-ranked formation behind it.
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A meeting scheduled for Monday at the League on this subject
Lucien Simon, vice-president of the LNR in charge of sports affairs, ensures that this solution is well considered but not acted on to date. “ There is a very complicated table that has been built, but not yet voted and validated by the management committee which specifies that if a club cannot play a final phase match, it will be replaced by the club classified just below, he explains. But this is still only an opinion of the sports commission that I chair. A meeting where this thorny subject will be put on the table is precisely scheduled this Monday in the League.
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« The whole problem is that the closer we get to the end of the Championship, the less we have a fallback date., continues Lucien Simon. We have discussed and exposed all possible hypotheses. If a team can’t play, what do we do? Is it the team classified below it at the end of the regular classification which is automatically qualified? Which poses problems depending on where you play. For Pro D2, for example, the semi-finals are played on the field of the top-ranked team. And if it is she who cannot play, how do you switch the reception area. There are three possibilities and the sports commission has given an opinion but it is not a decision. »
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