���˿���

Premiership Rugby still aims to restart the season in mid-August after clubs were allowed to move to close contact training from 6 July.

Sides returned to socially-distanced training on 2 June after the league was halted because of Covid-19 in March.

"The Premiership clubs successfully completed stage one of the process so now we can move to stage two ahead of the targeted resumption of Premiership Rugby on the weekend of 14-16 August," professional game chair Chris Booy said.

"I'm delighted to confirm that rugby restart is on track," he added.

"The teams at Premiership Rugby, the Rugby Football Union, Rugby Players' Association and at our clubs have undertaken a huge amount of work to get us to stage two and I commend them for their dedication and tireless commitment to resuming the league campaign when it is safe to do so."

Premiership Rugby have proposed having some midweek games as clubs try and finish the season - which has nine rounds of regular-season games and two rounds of play-offs to go.

"This stage brings with it a comprehensive Covid-19 testing programme for players and staff and a contact tracing protocol," sad Premiership Rugby chief executive Darren Childs.

"As part of our commitment to player welfare, all players will be asked whether they would like to opt-in to stage two training, after completing an education module.

"Rugby has unique challenges due to levels of proximity and impact, which is why the exhaustive process that is being followed is so thorough and has involved high-level collaboration between Premiership Rugby, the RFU and RPA."