AS many have learned – in life and sport – you must sometimes bend with the wind. For example, taken at face value, the new hard-line Covid protocols in and around Premiership matches – or their renewed enforcement to be precise – don’t seem based on any identifiable logic.
Players can engage in up close and personal battle for 80+ minutes, tackle each other to destruction and they can drown each other with sweat, spume, spittle and claret. That’s ok. They can punch each other and handle the same ball and they can form countless rolling mauls...
but they can’t shake hands with the opposition at the end, indulge in try celebrations with colleagues. Nor can they eat or drink in the changing rooms, ‘enjoy’ an indoors ice bath, pose for a team picture and injured players must not be present on match day.