COULD it be July at the earliest before we see another game of Super League?

There is much speculation about how the season could resume and potentially be completed, but the coronavirus pandemic continues to leave so many unknowns.

LATEST NEWS:

A statement from Leeds Rhinos this afternoon could be said to be indicating there will be no matches until July, at the earliest.

Included in the statement were the paragraphs:

“Our Board of Directors have been working tirelessly to plot a course for the club and our business to steer a way through the current stormy waters we find ourselves in.

“We are carefully controlling our costs. Earlier this month, 150 staff, including our players, coaches, office staff and Directors were placed on furlough as part of the government’s job retention scheme. That will remain the case for nearly all staff until at least the end of June.”

The caveat to that is that furlough can be cancelled with two days’ notice, so it’s possible players, coaches, backroom staff and administrators could be recalled earlier if it is deemed safe to resume action in a competition that’s been suspended since the middle of March.

The fact that France has banned sport with crowds until at least July 11 gives another indication of the possible timescales we’re looking at.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

There has been talk of the rugby league season at Super League and Championship level resuming behind closed doors.

One model that’s been reported is for all Super League games to take place at one venue over a weekend, with all of the games televised – two shown on Sky Sports as per schedule and the other four available on pay-per-view.

This would be a way of meeting broadcasting contracts, reducing costs, earning clubs some much needed revenue, and giving the sport-loving public a boost in morale.

The players would be tested for Covid-19 and tightly managed on a match day, while continuing to train on their own during the week.

There’s lots of other speculation on how and when the season could restart, but nothing is official.

STATE OF PLAY:

All that we know for sure is that the UK lockdown extension means there will definitely be no Saints Super League action until mid-May at the earliest, and the club’s fixture list reflects this.

Saints last played at Castleford Tigers on March 15, when they lost 28-14.

That result left them sixth on the ladder behind leaders Wigan Warriors, second-placed Castleford Tigers, third-placed Leeds Rhinos, fourth-placed Warrington Wolves and fifth-placed Huddersfield Giants.

Saints won three of their six rounds of Super League before the suspension, their successes being at home to Salford Red Devils (48-8), away to Hull FC (32-18) and away to Toronto Wolfpack at Warrington (32-0).

Since then there have been five postponements – at Leeds on March 20, Hull KR on March 27, away to Salford Red Devils in the Challenge Cup on April 4/5, at home to Wigan on Good Friday and away to Catalans Dragons on April 18.

We know definitely this Friday’s home date with Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, the following week’s trip to Toronto and any Challenge Cup quarter-final tie on May 9/10 will be postponed due to the lockdown – that will take the sequence to 8 postponements

The next possible contest, then, is away to Hull FC on May 14

And the round scheduled after that is the Magic Weekend in Newcastle, where Saints are slated to play Salford Red Devils on May 23.