DANNY Wilson believes Scotland’s new Covid isolation regulations could put his Glasgow team at a serious disadvantage in their Champions Cup campaign.
Having picked up a losing bonus point at La Rochelle last Sunday, the Warriors are at home to Exeter on Saturday, and will then play both teams again in the pool stage of the competition in the New Year.
Both clubs would constitute tough opposition even if Glasgow were at full strength, but the head coach’s concern is that the new rules surrounding household positives will make it more likely that some of his players end up being sidelined.
As of last Saturday, the Scottish rules were tightened to take into account the new Omicron variant, and mean that if someone in a Warriors player’s household tests positive for Covid, that player will have to self-isolate along with them. In England, by contrast, people can still be cleared by a negative PCR test.
“The change of rules in Scotland about 10 days’ isolation for household contacts is massive for us,” Wilson said. “That means players who haven’t got it, but live with someone who has, will be out for 10 days. That’s not the same in the countries of the teams we’re going to be playing against – England, France, Wales and other nations don’t have that rule in place, I believe.”
Like all professional squads, Glasgow would still be able to put out a competitive team even if one or two of their players were sidelined by isolation rules. But, as the Omicron variant spreads, Wilson is worried that the number of positive cases could prevent some games from going ahead.
“I really hope not, but the threat is increasing dramatically each week,” he said. “A few clubs have been struggling – Munster, [Cardiff] Blues, Scarlets and Wasps, I think. You’re going to see more this week. And I think the inevitability is that we might have some threats on games.”
Wilson said medical confidentiality prevented him from talking specifically about any individuals within his squad who might be unvaccinated, but he tacitly admitted that not every player has been jagged.
“I think there are individual choices and individual decisions made in any environment. It’s brought to my attention if it’s going to restrict somebody from playing. It is individual choices and in every environment there are one or two who have made that decision.”
Whoever plays against Exeter will need to be on top of his game if Glasgow are to get the result they need to keep themselves in the hunt for a place in the knockout stages of European rugby’s premier competition. That 20-13 loss in France three days ago was a commendable result given the quality of the opposition, and the losing bonus point may yet prove relevant given the top eight in each pool of a dozen clubs will progress to the last 16.
Even so, Wilson will demand that his team tighten up some aspects of their play in the expectation that another losing bonus point will simply not do.
“I was really proud of the boys at the weekend,” he added. “To be in the lead around 60 minutes away at La Rochelle, a team that was in the European Cup final last year, was a step in the right direction. Ultimately we still lost the game and that was down to a couple of key moments that cost us. We will need to be right on top of our game against Exeter to get the win. If we can do that then we’ll be right in the mix.”
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