England's second-string team were set to host their Scottish counterparts at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in a non-cap international encounter on Sunday; Scotland confirm a total of three members of their squad tested positive for Covid-19; game cancelled and will not be re-arranged.
Sunday 27 June 2021 09:22, UK
England A vs Scotland A has been called off due to further COVID-19 positive tests in the Scotland squad.
England's second-string team were set to host their Scottish counterparts at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in a non-cap international encounter on Sunday.
However, Scotland's preparations for the match were thrown into chaos on Friday after the Scottish Rugby Union confirmed an unnamed player had tested positive for coronavirus, with eight others forced to self-isolate as a precaution.
Scotland subsequently cancelled plans to travel to Leicester for the game on Thursday as the entire squad and management team were PCR tested.
But it now seems more cases have emerged in the camp with an RFU statement confirming the match would not be re-arranged.
England head coach Eddie Jones added: "We are of course very disappointed not to be playing this match and particularly playing in front of a great crowd in Leicester.
"However, we understand that the safety and wellbeing of all of our teams and supporters is the most important thing and we wish Scotland the very best."
The Scottish Rugby Union said that in total three members of the Scotland camp had tested positive for Covid-19.
"The entire squad and management team were PCR-tested early on Thursday morning and, with no positive results returned from the playing group, the team travelled to Leicester on Friday afternoon," an SRU statement read.
"However, following a further round of PCR testing on Saturday morning, Scottish Rugby can confirm that three positive tests for Covid-19 have been returned.
"The three members of the camp that tested positive have started self-isolation as per Scottish Government guidelines, and the Scottish Rugby medical team have since begun internal contact-tracing to determine those that are close contacts, and as such will also have to self-isolate as per Scottish Government guidelines."
The England squad will now train at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Sunday instead, before regrouping at Pennyhill Park on Monday June 28 ahead of the two Test matches against USA (Sunday July 4) and Canada (Saturday July 10), at Twickenham Stadium.
Jones will also name an updated squad for those games while ticket holders for the 'A' international will receive an automated refund in the coming days.
Scotland, who have a number of players on the British and Irish Lions' South Africa tour, are due to play Romania and Georgia next month.
