End of Munster road a fitting finale to Rainbow Cup farce

CJ Stander of Munster with his team-mates in the huddle after their win in the Guinness PRO14 Rainbow Cup match against Cardiff Blues. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

It may have been far from a satisfactory way to decide which “northern” team progressed to next month’s final but for a competition as ill-fated as the PRO14 Rainbow Cup, it was entirely fitting.

Munster’s hopes of silverware this season were unceremoniously ended on Wednesday when Benetton advanced to the June 19 decider without playing their final game.

The Italian side needed a victory at Ospreys on Saturday to claim their place against South African opposition on home soil in Treviso but were confirmed as northern pool winners on Wednesday when positive Covid-19 cases in the Ospreys squad caused the cancellation of that final-round pool game.

As a result, Benetton were awarded four match points that mean they cannot be caught at the top of the table, rendering Munster’s trip to Zebre Friday evening meaningless.

Munster had been gunning for a bonus-point victory in Parma to pile the pressure on Benetton, who were three points clear ahead of their visit to Ospreys the following day, but competition rules mean the Welsh region were unable to field a team after their latest round of Covid-19 testing returned three positive results.

“The decision to cancel the game is a result of the mandate from Public Health Wales that all individuals who were part of the travelling party from the previous fixture are now required to self-isolate in line with public health protocols,” a PRO14 statement read.

“With no available weekends remaining, the game will not be rescheduled. As a result, PRO14 rugby will use the protocol decided prior to the 2020/21 season whereby a game that could not be rescheduled would result in that fixture deemed a 0-0 draw, but four match points would be awarded to the team who had not been the cause of the postponement.”

Yet perhaps this was the way things were always going to end for a competition conceived in a pandemic and disrupted every step of the way since:

• December 23, 2020: organisers declare they are cutting the 2020-21 PRO14 campaign short in March and “allowing South Africa’s four ‘Super’ teams and our existing clubs to finish the season with a 16-team Rainbow Cup competition kicking off on April 17.
• March 26, 2021: tournament to begin on April 24 with cross-hemisphere fixtures in the final three rounds of the pool stages as the Bulls, Lions, Sharks, and Stormers travel north for matches.
• April 21: Two days before Rainbow Cup kick-off, PRO14 announces it will be run as a dual tournament with SA teams denied permission to travel. The solution is a lop-sided pool competition, 12 teams in the north and four in the south with the winner of each pool after five rather than six matches advancing to the final. Integrity of the northern pool is further compromised with Irish provinces and Welsh provinces forced into three rounds of derby matches while the Italians and Scots play amongst themselves.

The upshot was Benetton got to this weekend’s final round as the only unbeaten team and favourites to advance to the final.

There was still a chance for Munster, and also Glasgow Warriors who have 19 points having played all five of their games, to take advantage of an Ospreys victory and Saturday’s game in Wales would have been the now-finalists’ first trip outside of Italy in the competition.

Now we will never know.