Leinster's progress to quarter-finals confirmed as Toulon president deems cancellation 'disgusting'

Leinster have been awarded the victory from their Champions Cup round of 16 fixture after Toulon had a Covid-19 case in the squad.

The match was deemed unsafe to play by a matchday medical risk assessment committee after it was told a Toulon player, who did not travel to Dublin, had tested positive for coronavirus.

The French club completed an additional round of testing in Ireland, producing no confirmed cases, but the committee decided it had no option but to cancel.

A match result resolution committee has since awarded the game to Leinster, who will face champions Exeter Chiefs or Lyon in the quarter-final next weekend.

"Following the cancellation of the Heineken Champions Cup round of 16 fixture between Leinster Rugby and RC Toulon due to health and safety concerns for players, club staff, and match officials alike, the result of the match has been decided by a match result resolution committee," said a statement by tournament organisers EPCR.

"The committee, comprising members of the EPCR Management team, with EPCR Board members, Andrea Rinaldo (Italy) and Robert Howat (Scotland), as observers, considered the facts regarding the cancelled match today (Friday, 2 April). 

"Following medical advice that the match could not be played safely, RC Toulon were unable to select a match day squad after it was deemed that the club had a number of high-risk close contacts with one of its non-travelling players who had tested positive for Covid-19. 

"Therefore as RC Toulon could not fulfil the fixture, the committee decided under the terms of EPCR’s Covid-19 protocol that Leinster will progress to the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals on the weekend of 9/10/11 April."

Toulon president Bernard Lemaitre described the decision to cancel the game as "disgusting".

Tournament officials made the announcement just over five hours ahead of kick-off at the RDS and Lemaitre revealed that the player tested positive and was isolated before the Toulon squad travelled to Dublin - and were allowed to travel by the competition bosses.

An earlier EPRC statement confirmed the match is off and Leinster will progress:

"Following a meeting by video conference of a match day medical risk assessment committee comprising medical leads from the unions, league bodies and both clubs, with input from the public health authorities in Ireland, it has been decided to cancel the Heineken Champions Cup round of 16 match between Leinster Rugby and RC Toulon," they stated.

"Although the RC Toulon players and staff who had travelled undertook an additional round of PCR testing in Dublin yesterday (Thursday 1 April) which revealed no positive results, the committee concluded that there were a number of high-risk contacts with the player who had tested positive and deemed the match unsafe to play with the participation of those identified contacts. Having been notified of that position, RC Toulon informed EPCR that they could not select a match day squad to safely fulfil the fixture."

However, the Toulon president hit back and insisted the club did all that was asked of them. 

"It's disgusting. The player tested positive on Wednesday and was immediately isolated.

"The EPCR was immediately informed, but let us go to Dublin. [We have been here] for more than 24 hours. 

"And despite totally negative [results in the] re-test of the players last night at 8pm, these people took this decision less than five hours before the match."

BREAKING: Today's #HeinekenChampionsCup tie v @RCTofficiel is off.

More to follow...#LEIvRCT

— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) April 2, 2021

European Rugby chiefs issued a statement earlier this week outlining the scenario involved in such a scenario.

They explained: "If it is deemed that a match might be in doubt due to, for example, a club having one or more positive PCR test results arising from testing three days prior to kick-off, EPCR’s Match Day Medical Risk Assessment Committee will meet to determine whether the match can be played safely.

"If a match cannot be played safely, it will be cancelled and the club whose Covid-19 status has NOT forced the cancellation will progress to the next round. 

"If the Covid-19 status of BOTH clubs forces a match cancellation, or if there is some other reason why a match is unable to go ahead at the scheduled time, then the matter will be referred to a Match Result Resolution Committee to determine which club (if any) will progress to the next round."