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Broncos forfeit Toulouse game


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17 minutes ago, Magic XIII said:

Hopefully the same deduction your mob will get for flaunting COVID rules making a mockery of the competition. 

I am sure Featherstone will be dealt with appropriately once the investigation is complete.

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Here is the official RFL statement:

The RFL Board have awarded Toulouse Olympique a 24-0 win for their home Betfred Championship fixture against London Broncos after the Broncos advised this week they would not be prepared to travel to France for the fixture as scheduled on April 17.

The Broncos will also be referred to the RFL Compliance Department for off-field misconduct - failure to fulfil a fixture.

The RFL Board ruled in March that the match should go ahead as scheduled despite the change in UK Government quarantine restrictions affecting France, on the basis the Broncos are a full-time club.

The RFL’s Covid Regulatory Framework allows for matches to be postponed if a club has seven or more players unavailable as a result of positive Covid-19 tests or Test and Trace close contact analysis.

The Framework states that other than in those circumstances:

Where a Club is unable to fulfil a Match due to player availability...the RFL Board shall order that the Club unable to fulfil the Match shall forfeit the Match and the points awarded to its opponent (with a deemed score of 24 – 0 to the opponent). 

In the case of the Club forfeiting the Match, the Match shall not count towards the number of Matches required to qualify for the Play Offs.

This means that Toulouse are now deemed to have played two matches in the 2021 Betfred Championship season, and London Broncos one. Clubs are required to have played in 70% of their scheduled fixtures to be eligible for the top six Play-Offs.

I find this rather disappointing on two counts.  First, it gives Toulouse the game 24-0 apparently on the basis of London being 'unable' to fulfill the game; but they are perfectly able, but are choosing not to, which is quite a different - and I would argue far more serious - matter.  Second, there is no reference to further consideration of the London decision.  Is that really it?  Surely, only anarchy lies down the route along which clubs say, "We don't agree with the governing body's or management committee's views on this matter, so we are going to completely ignore them and do what we like!"

 

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3 minutes ago, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

Surely, only anarchy lies down the route along which clubs say, "We don't agree with the governing body's or management committee's views on this matter, so we are going to completely ignore them and do what we like!"

Well, quite and it wouldn’t be surprising if the RFL dishes out a penalty to the Broncos pour encourager les autres

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The RFL needs to re-think it's decision for three reasons:

Firstly, it does discrimate against full-time clubs in the championship, if there is a requirement for then to go to France and not part-time clubs. You can make the same argument about the private jet.for a part-time club as well and although a quarantine period affects part-time players with employment elsewhere individually, a full time club is as much affected by not bering able to train during quarantine as a part-time one is.

Secondly, the decision was made in March, it's now April and while the UK is headng towards herd-immunity . France is way behind and in lockdown. The situation is fluid and the RFL needs to take this into account.

Third point, If Toulouse are not able to play any other championship clubs at home bearing in mind this situation could persist for some time it brings the integrity of the championship into doubt.

I am fully aware that this London side would probably have been on the end of thrashing but that's not the three points I am making.

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4 minutes ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

The RFL needs to re-think it's decision for three reasons:

Firstly, it does discrimate against full-time clubs in the championship, if there is a requirement for then to go to France and not part-time clubs. You can make the same argument about the private jet.for a part-time club as well and although a quarantine period affects part-time players with employment elsewhere individually, a full time club is as much affected by not bering able to train during quarantine as a part-time one is.

Secondly, the decision was made in March, it's now April and while the UK is headng towards herd-immunity . France is way behind and in lockdown. The situation is fluid and the RFL needs to take this into account.

Third point, If Toulouse are not able to play any other championship clubs at home bearing in mind this situation could persist for some time it brings the integrity of the championship into doubt.

I am fully aware that this London side would probably have been on the end of thrashing but that's not the three points I am making.

You make a good point on whether Toulouse will be able to play home matches at all.

Might we see a Toronto/NZ Warriors situation where they play their home matches abroad? 

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Here is the TOXIII's club president's take on the matter:

 

Le Président du Toulouse Olympique XIII Bernard SARRAZAIN s’est exprimé sur le sujet : ” Cela fait plus d’un an que nous n’avons pas évolué à domicile, nous attendions ce rendez-vous avec impatience, tout était en place, aussi nous sommes très déçus par cette décision et son timing, à seulement 10 jours du match, que nous ne comprenons pas.

En effet, nous avons tout mis en œuvre pour que Londres soit dans les meilleures conditions possibles, autant sur le plan sportif que sanitaire, en finançant nous-mêmes un avion affrété spécialement pour eux avec un aller-retour dans la journée. C’est un investissement considérable de notre part. Nous allions même payer les tests PCR obligatoires pour entrer en France !

Nous nous déplaçons une quinzaine de fois par saison en Angleterre, sans nous plaindre, et il n’y a pas de raison valable pour que Londres ne puisse pas venir une fois à Toulouse.

Je salue la fermeté de la RFL, dont la décision n’entrouvre pas la porte à ce type de dérive.”

One of the points he makes (if my sketchy, French translating is correct) is that he doesn't understand why, if the Broncos simply were not prepared to travel, they left it until a mere ten days before the match before saying so.  As a consequence, plans have been drawn up, and one may assume, contractors engaged for various tasks in Toulouse.  They might reasonably expect to be paid, especially if they have turned other work away.

I hope the RFL gets London to foot any bill!

 

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This is the normal RFL “protect the small heartland clubs” nonsense. Why should London alone have to travel to Toulouse, when the other clubs don’t? It’s their choice to run part time programmes, and vice versa Broncos full time, and there should be a level playing field on the issue of Toulouse’s home games regardless of how players do or don’t get paid. Anything else damages the integrity of the competition. 


Pathetic, as usual, and the inevitable Broncos-bashing ensues too. Credit to David for telling them to go and do one. 
 

 

Apparently this site says I "won the day" here on 23rd Jan, 19th Jan, 9th Jan also 13th December, whatever any of that means. Anyway, 4 times in a few weeks? The forum must be going to the dogs - you people need to seriously up your game. Where's Dutoni when you need him?

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48 minutes ago, Clogiron said:

I don't think relegation would be too harsh a penalty to impose, same with the Featherstone situation, time for the RFL to show who's in charge.

Exhibit one for the small town special treatment brigade 🙄🙄🙄

Apparently this site says I "won the day" here on 23rd Jan, 19th Jan, 9th Jan also 13th December, whatever any of that means. Anyway, 4 times in a few weeks? The forum must be going to the dogs - you people need to seriously up your game. Where's Dutoni when you need him?

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42 minutes ago, The Art of Hand and Foot said:

You know what made me lose any sympathy for them was the "level playing field" bit. They chose to have a full time squad. Calling for part timers to quarratine for 5 days!!!!?  If the have aspirations of a super league return then they should act like it.


Why on earth can’t part time players use some of their annual leave to quarantine? It wouldn’t be many days - 4 to be precise. Why on earth should a club have to adhere to different criteria within a sporting competition simply because they have chosen to pay players a full time wage? Why would one business have to incur a bunch of travel cost overheads when their competitors don’t have to?

 

Time for some of the “local league for local people” crowd on here to give their head a wobble. This is RFL incompetence, nothing more, as usual. 

Apparently this site says I "won the day" here on 23rd Jan, 19th Jan, 9th Jan also 13th December, whatever any of that means. Anyway, 4 times in a few weeks? The forum must be going to the dogs - you people need to seriously up your game. Where's Dutoni when you need him?

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The club statement is a rambling affair, containing too much supposition about p/t players and their employers. Whatever the strength of the argument, a position should have been taken before the season started. It would have been a strong argument then; right now it looks opportunistic.

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10 minutes ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:


Why on earth can’t part time players use some of their annual leave to quarantine? It wouldn’t be many days - 4 to be precise. 

Maybe their company will not allow them to use annual leave to cover quarantine. 

On full time /part time there is a balance on whether aclub can sustain FT at that levrl especially after the last 16 months. 

I understand Broncos comments on being singled out for playing away but the rfl made the decision its not the other clubs. 

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Is there not exemptions for full time sports team to be able to travel to/from France/UK. They of course don't apply to part time and hence purely through covid rules part time teams are unable to travel/partake in games abroad.

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I can understand Toulouse’s position and sure this will rumble on for a while, possibly legally. Timing isn’t great but then the position in France has changed. Though with the state of Broncos squad it seems a neat solution to minimise losses.  Not sure where this leaves things but maybe not the last game to fall by the wayside this year during the Pandemic. Its not gone away and quite likely one or more clubs will forfeit for other reasons.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

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14 minutes ago, Southern Reiver said:

I can understand Toulouse’s position and sure this will rumble on for a while, possibly legally. Timing isn’t great but then the position in France has changed. Though with the state of Broncos squad it seems a neat solution to minimise losses.  Not sure where this leaves things but maybe not the last game to fall by the wayside this year during the Pandemic. Its not gone away and quite likely one or more clubs will forfeit for other reasons.

The situation in France according to friends is pretty bad.

On another note I went back to work in our Barcelona office last week and travelled by train at St Pancras there was only ONE French official on duty.

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Have you had a covid test 

Qui

Have a nice trip 🙂

 

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26 minutes ago, redjonn said:

Is there not exemptions for full time sports team to be able to travel to/from France/UK. They of course don't apply to part time and hence purely through covid rules part time teams are unable to travel/partake in games abroad.

There is an exemption for 'elite sports' competitions. The Championship was classed as elite in 2020 but that status appears to have now been removed (I'm pretty sure that I saw something a while ago that this was at the RFL's request?) so quarantine would be necessary.

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