The Coupe de France has been abandoned at the third-round stage, the French Rugby League Federation has announced.
For the third season in a row, therefore, no winner’s name will appear on the Lord Derby trophy, following a previous abandonment in 2020 and cancellation in 2021.
The Federation decided last week that the Cup competition would move directly to the round at which the Elite 1 clubs enter, missing out entirely the round which was due to be played on the weekend just gone. The need to maintain league fixtures amid growing numbers of positive Covid tests and resulting cancellations was given as the reason.
But the move drew an angry response from lower-tier clubs who had thus been eliminated from the Cup without playing. The Federation then decided to abandon the competition altogether, fearing a pile-up of fixtures later in the season.
After Elite 1 league fixtures were postponed on the weekend of 8-9 January, which should have seen the restart following the Christmas break, matches will finally resume this coming weekend – the first time that teams will have been in action for six weeks.
The above content is also available in the regular weekly edition of League Express, on newsstands every Monday in the UK and as a digital download. Click here for more details.
