Quite, twice weekly I think , but testing doesn't stop the virus, and a single negative test isn't a reliable indicator.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/53746240
The very practicality of keeping a Rugby Union Squad healthy and covid-free during this covid pandemic whilst training 2 or 3 times and playing twice a week must surely be put into question. Six players positive in one squad !
Will it prove even possible to complete the remaining fixtures?
With 4 clubs involved in each week's matches and 40 plus players , physios coaches etc in each club's squad one has to recognise that all it could take is one weak link to break for a significant spike of 2-3 players within the squad.
The bit that I found particularly alarming
The RFL is set to analyse Sunday's game to determine how many players will now be required to self-isolate as a result of prolonged contacts with the infected players, as part of procedures agreed with Public Health England.
Scrums have been eradicated from the game for the rest of this season to reduce the number of hot-spot contamination risks on the field. But tackles involving at least two defenders are considered a risk. Any player involved in lengthy contact in a tackle with a player who has tested positive will have to self-isolate.
Presumably the same sort of agreement with procedures to assess close contact within games has also been struck between the RFU and PHE!
If the Premiership returns WITH scrums, mauls and lineouts......how on earth are they NOT involving prolonged close contact (in comparison with mere tackles and restarts in scrumless RL) over the course of a game?
One hooker/ prodigious tackler/jackling groundhog tests positive - how many would that involve isolating?
Dime's excellent plan to have two different pretty mutually exclusive matchday 23s with forwards and backs also training separately (so at least 4 separate training groups?) is a potentially excellent mitigator against covid spread in training but nevertheless the whole basis of the return looks increasingly dodgy.......
Even more so if a couple of Salford Reds players also test positive over the course of the next 10 days.
Away from the the ground will all our players be shielding between matches, as far as possible?