The NRL have taken the sensational step of postponing Canterbury’s match against the Sydney Roosters until Monday night following a coronavirus scare.
Canterbury forward Aiden Tolman was notified on Saturday night a teacher at his child’s school had tested positive to the virus.
The Laguna Street Public School in Sydney’s south has been closed until June 25, with a warning there’s a possibility children may have brought the virus home.
Tolman has undergone an urgent coronavirus test, with the NRL expecting results by lunchtime on Sunday.
The NRL were not willing to risk having a postive test returned just hours before kick off, throwing the schedule into chaos, so they postponed the match.
The Bulldogs v Roosters game has now been moved to 7pm on Monday, while Sunday’s St George Illawarra v Cronulla match at Campbelltown has been brought forward to start at 4pm instead of 6pm.
“We’re rapidly testing that player (Tolman) as we speak. We believe the risk is minimal, but we’re not going to take the risk,” ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys told AAP.
“The message is we’re not taking any risk with our players, or the community. Even though the risk is very low, the risk is not worth taking.
“We’ve shifted the match to tomorrow night to 7pm, and taken the St George Illawarra-Cronulla match to 4pm this afternoon.”
At this stage Tolman is the only Canterbury player being tested, given if he returns a negative result there is no risk to any other teammate.
The match is the first to be affected by the virus since the NRL’s resumption last month.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Credit where it’s due, it’s pretty agile management from the NRL and all the clubs involved It’s probably only a matter of time before a club is impacted in a way that can’t be rescheduled...be interesting to see how it’s managed
Stormy
Roar Rookie
Thanks, great 1st 40, 2nd not so great. The Knights defended so well.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
true. But your boys did well, teaching the youngsters a lesson. :)
Stormy
Roar Rookie
Couldn't agree more, DPS, most of the weekend has been poor. Very, very disappointing!
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
And now no Roar blog... Dragons v Sharks so uninspiring??
Curtis Loew
Guest
They probably wouldn’t have scored 1 point , so it hardly seems fair to award them one .
Curtis Loew
Guest
Going to be interesting to see if they identify how the teacher caught it .
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
The only fair decision is to award the points to the Bulldogs, as they would have won anyway.
Tarata
Roar Rookie
Against the roosters i will settle for 1 point each
Paul
Roar Guru
Thankfully the current restrictions allow the NRL to take this course of action. It was also fortunate the 4 teams are Sydney based, so travel wasn't going to be a huge problem.
The Barry
Roar Guru
So what happens if Tolman does test positive? I assume the rest of the team will need to be tested and the game postponed beyond tomorrow night ? If the Bulldogs can’t play do they forfeit ?