PRESS RELEASE
The World Rugby Hall of Fame, located in Rugby, UK, will be closed until the end of May in line with public health authority directives
DUBLIN, Ireland, March 20, 2020/ -- World Rugby (https://www.World.Rugby/) has today announced further action in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
After detailed and constructive dialogue with the respective host and participating unions, and with the wellbeing of the global rugby family at heart, the following events have been postponed:
The men’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series tournaments in London and Paris will be postponed, provisionally until September
The women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series tournament in Langford has been postponed until later in the year
The final men’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series event has been postponed until later in the year
Some Rugby World Cup 2021 and 2023 regional qualifying events have been postponed
In addition, the following event has been cancelled:
The World Rugby U20 Championship 2020, scheduled to be hosted in northern Italy in late June and July, has been cancelled following detailed consultation with the Federazione Italiana Rugby
The Olympic Games Repechage qualification tournament scheduled for June is under review and World Rugby continues to be in close consultation with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding the implications for the qualification process in the event that the Repechage is unable to be hosted due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The World Rugby Hall of Fame, located in Rugby, UK, will be closed until the end of May in line with public health authority directives.
These latest decisions have been taken in consultation with the respective unions and follows previously confirmed postponements of the Hong Kong and Singapore rounds of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series and women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series event in Stellenbosch, South Africa. They have been taken in line with the relevant government and public health authority advice.
Ticket holders for the postponed HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series events in Langford, London and Paris should access the following links for more information regarding the respective events:
Langford ticket holders information
London ticket holders information
Paris ticket holders information
World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said: "We stand in solidarity with the global rugby family and people around the world at this exceptional and difficult time, and I will ensure we continue do everything in our power to protect the wellbeing of the global rugby family and the wider public.
"Taking the appropriate measures that mitigate the spread of COVID-19 Coronavirus in line with government and public health agency responses and advice is paramount. This has underpinned our decision, taken in consultation with our unions, to suspend these World Rugby tournament activities with immediate effect, including the cancellation of the World Rugby U20 Championship, following conversations with our friends at the Italian federation.
"We are in close dialogue with the IOC relating to the conclusion of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games rugby sevens qualification, specifically options to replace the final repechage tournament, should that be required. We have two women’s and one men’s teams left to qualify and are currently considering all options to ensure a fair and credible conclusion to the qualification process.
"Looking at a longer-term strategy, we are in continual dialogue with our unions, regions and the players' association relating to the wider global impact on rugby activities, including financial implications, driven by government and health authority measures to combat the spread of COVID-19.
"At this extraordinary time, we are united in our commitment to finding ways of ensuring that on-field activity can resume as soon as it is safe and possible to do so. To that end, the World Rugby Executive Committee is driving the implementation of a dedicated action plan that will guide us through this challenging period as a sport unified across the international and domestic environments".
Further World Rugby tournament-related updates will follow in due course.
Meanwhile, all World Rugby staff based in its Dublin headquarters have been working from home for more than a week in line with the Irish Government directive regarding gatherings, while all non-essential business travel has been suspended until at least 29 March.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Rugby.
Media Contact:
Dominic Rumbles
Head of Communications
World Rugby
T: +353-86-8520-826
E: dominic.rumbles@worldrugby.org
Rugby@apo-opa.com
Social Media:
www.twitter.com/worldrugby
About World Rugby:
World Rugby (https://www.World.Rugby/) is committed to the global advancement of rugby and its character-building values to build a better, stronger game for all. The global rugby community comprises 9.6 million players and 338 million fans affiliated via 124 national member unions in six regions and driven by the commercial success of Rugby World Cup, World Rugby is planning to invest GBP £620 million at all levels of the game between 2020 and 2023, eclipsing the previous four-year cycle by 28 per cent, to ensure strong and sustainable growth https://www.World.Rugby/.
SOURCE
World Rugby
Multimedia content
Download logo
Link: World Rugby
Share
Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Google+ | Tumblr | Reddit | Pinterest | StumbleUpon
APO Group - Africa Newsroom | Safe sender instructions | Privacy Policy
Distributed by :
APO Group
Voie du Chariot 3
1003 Lausanne – Switzerland
Tel : +41 22 534 96 97
E-mail: switzerland (at) APO-opa.org
www.APO-opa.com
25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
