Irate Toulon point finger at Irish health officials after Leinster handed walkover

Blues advance as French club travelled despite learning of positive Covid case on Wednesday

A general view of the RDS Arena following the announcement that the Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16 match between Leinster and RC Toulon was cancelled. Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Ruaidhri O'Connor Twitter

April 03 2021 02:30 AM

Leinster are through to the quarter-final of this season’s Champions Cup, where they’ll face Exeter Chiefs or Lyon next weekend, after they were handed a walkover in yesterday’s last-16 fixture against Toulon on safety grounds.

A member of the Toulon squad tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday and although the rest of the squad travelled to Dublin on Thursday morning, EPCR’s (European Professional Club Rugby) review of their training session earlier this week established there were a number of close contacts in the travelling party.

Toulon have confirmed it was an unnamed member of their front-row who tested positive and as many of six of their front-rowers were deemed close contacts.

The player remained in France to isolate, but his team-mates travelled.

The French club carried out a full round of tests at their base in south Dublin and they all came back negative on Thursday. However, at a fraught meeting of EPCR’s match day medical risk assessment committee – which comprises medical leads from the participating unions, leagues and both clubs, with input from the public health authorities in Ireland – yesterday morning, it was decided it was not safe to play the match.

Subsequently, the match result resolution committee, comprising members of the EPCR management team, with EPCR board members, Andrea Rinaldo (FIR) and Robert Howat (SRU), as observers, considered the facts regarding the cancelled match and made the decision to put Leinster through, much to Toulon’s disgust.

Toulon were offered the chance to play on Sunday if they could find replacements, but deemed it a “sporting impossibility”.

The French club are furious about the decision and are threatening to boycott European rugby in future, while the saga raises questions about how Toulon were able to travel to Ireland with six close contacts of a positive case.
Toulon are not happy with the turn of events and president Bernard Lemaitre described it as a “scandal”.

In particular, they said they were given permission to travel to Dublin by EPCR, something the body refutes.
“EPCR does not authorise travel for participants in its tournaments and therefore, was not in a position to either authorise RC Toulon to travel to Ireland or to prevent them from doing so,” a spokesperson said.

“All clubs in EPCR’s tournaments are responsible for complying with the terms of the agreed Covid-19 tournament protocol and quarantine exemptions, including the requirement to conduct thorough contact tracing in the event of a positive test result for Covid-19.”

In an official statement, Toulon said: “The Rugby Club Toulonnais deeply deplores this decision and sends its thoughts to all its supporters who were looking forward to this match.
“This is once again proof of the errors associated with the organisation of European competitions. The EPCR allowed the players and staff to go to Ireland, prepare for the match, and finally deprive him a few hours before kick-off to participate in this major event.”

The French club pulled out of a clash with the Scarlets at the 11th hour earlier this season over concerns about a case in the Welsh ranks.

Relations between the three-time champions and organisers were already strained before yesterday, but with Italy legend Sergio Parisse appearing to call for a French boycott of the tournament on social media, the president was giving outraged interviews and threatening to withdraw from next season’s edition.

“I’m angry, disgusted, of course,” Lemaitre said before Toulon returned home on a charter last night.

“I’m sickened because we put so much of ourselves into running a club . . . we give ourselves so much for this sport, that to be treated like this, especially for the second time in a row, it’s starting to do a lot.

“So no shame, no, but a feeling of disgust. After making a fool of itself in the world of rugby during the pool stages – with various incidents with different clubs, including ours – probably because of a certain laxity in its procedures, the EPCR then wanted to show “rigour”.

“In this sense, we received drastic information in midweek, which we observed to the letter.”

EPCR’s statement clearly states that Ireland’s public health officials had a role in the discussions, but Lamaitre believes their involvement gave cause for the match to be moved to France.

“It is not a feeling of shame but of disgust, because we are powerless.

“Especially since I learned from an official source – following discussions between the LNR (French league) and the EPCR that it was the Irish government, through its health administration, that had banned the match . . .

“But when did this ban come about? Before the EPCR decision?

“If this is the case, the latter has an obligation, as an organiser, to have the game played elsewhere. Not in Ireland or the British Isles?

“So why not in France, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow? Once again, it is an arbitration on the green carpet (of Ireland). It’s extremely confusing, we’ll never know the exact truth. They communicated well, and somehow, we are the bad boys. I’m a little disgusted.”

As he rages, Leinster can look forward to an away trip to either the holders Exeter or French side Lyon who meet at Sandy Park at 5.30 this evening.