London Irish will not play Bath on St. Stephens Day. A Covid-19 outbreak amongst the playing squad has caused the fixture to be cancelled.
This is the second of the Premiership's St. Stephens Day fixtures to be cancelled after Leicester's match with Newcastle was called off on Tuesday.
The club reported that a small number of players tested positive early this week and further players presented symptoms later in the week.
A Premiership Rugby spokesperson said, "The health and safety of players, staff, management, officials and supporters is our only priority, so the decision has been taken to call the game off. We will give London Irish all the support they need and hope that those who have tested positive will make a swift and successful recovery.
"Neither Premiership Rugby nor the club will be naming any of the players or staff involved and we'd ask everyone to respect their privacy."
Former Munster, Leinster and Ireland coach Declan Kidney has been the Director of Rugby for the Exiles club since 2018.
He expressed his disappointment at the game's cancellation, "I'm really disappointed for the players, as they've acted professionally, following all the relevant guidelines, but this is the situation we find ourselves in at the moment, as the country continues to try and navigate its way through the pandemic."
Kidney may be further disappointed when points for this fixture are allocated.
Under this year's Covid guidelines, no Premiership games can be rescheduled once cancelled. There isn't time for either of these fixtures to be made up. As such, a Premiership Rugby Panel will be put together to determine the point allocation for each team. The panel will determine which team gets two points and which team gets four based on which team was responsible for the cancellation of the game.
Since only London Irish have reported positive tests so far, the likelihood is they will receive two points.
There are still four games scheduled to go ahead on Saturday, with Exeter-Gloucester being the headline matchup. Exeter have won all three of their games so far with an 89-point differential. Meanwhile Gloucester have been managing the aftermath of Danny Cipriani's sudden departure by relying on young, emerging out-halves.
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