Rugby-COVID blow leaves Lions tour of South Africa in balance

Should the subsequent round of testing return negative results, the kickoff time of Wednesday’s game would be adjusted to 1800 GMT, one hour later than scheduled. HEALTH THE PRIORITY "Our priority is to ensure the health and safety of the entire touring party, which is why we quickly isolated the players and staff upon receiving the news of the positive result," said Ben Calveley, managing director for the Lions. The announcement of a first case in the Lions camp came minutes after South Africa cancelled Friday’s warm-up test against Georgia.

The British & Irish Lions' tour of South Africa was in jeopardy after the tourists reported their first case of COVID-19 on Wednesday amid a virulent third wave in the host nation. The Lions said two players were in self-isolation after a management member tested positive, threatening their second tour game against the Sharks in Johannesburg later on Wednesday.

The clash at Ellis Park will only go ahead if the rest of the party show negative results from PCR tests, leaving officials on tenterhooks as kickoff neared. More positive cases would throw into crisis an already disrupted programme.

On Tuesday, the Lions' scheduled weekend match against the Bulls in Pretoria was called off after the Currie Cup champions reported four cases in their ranks. Close contact meant the entire Bulls squad went into self-isolation, leaving them unable to field a team on Saturday.

A statement from the Lions said the individual and four close contacts – including two players and two members of staff – were being isolated and assessed at the team hotel, and that all other members of the touring party had been PCR-tested. Should the subsequent round of testing return negative results, the kickoff time of Wednesday's game would be adjusted to 1800 GMT, one hour later than scheduled.

HEALTH THE PRIORITY "Our priority is to ensure the health and safety of the entire touring party, which is why we quickly isolated the players and staff upon receiving the news of the positive result," said Ben Calveley, managing director for the Lions.

The announcement of a first case in the Lions camp came minutes after South Africa cancelled Friday's warm-up test against Georgia. The Springboks, who are due to play the Lions in the first of a three-match series on July 24, have been in self-isolation since Monday when four new cases were reported in their ranks. This increased to 12 on Tuesday after a new round of testing with both coach Jacques Nienaber and flyhalf Handre Pollard among those infected.

South Africa were scheduled to meet Georgia in their second test at Ellis Park on Friday as a warm-up for the Lions series. However, that was cancelled after Georgia also reported six cases in their ranks. South Africa went into a severe lockdown on June 28 - the eve of the Lions' arrival - as COVID-19 infections spiked. Last Saturday, the country had a daily record of 26,000 fresh cases. (Writing by Mark Gleeson; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Christian Radnedge and Andrew Cawthorne)