The Stormers and the Sharks will not square off at Cape Town Stadium tomorrow night.
This after PRO14 Rugby and SA Rugby yesterday announced that they will not be able to play a cross-hemisphere Rainbow Cup as planned.
The coastal rivals would have kicked off the tournament in the Mother City tomorrow night, but following the announcement by the South African Rugby Union (Saru), the Stormers cancelled all media activities for the week.
It is now believed that their clash against the Durbanites will be postponed until next week, with Saru yet to release a revised schedule for what will now be the Rainbow Cup SA.
The statement released yesterday reads: “PRO14 Rugby and SA Rugby will operate dual Rainbow Cup tournaments with no cross-hemisphere fixtures in the absence of formal approvals in place to allow the South African teams to enter the UK and Ireland.
“Despite a colossal effort, the South African teams have not been granted the required permissions to travel and allow the PRO14 Rainbow Cup to be played as planned.
“Multiple options for the South African teams to travel safely to Europe and be based in the UK were explored, but could not be put into practice due to the heightened restrictions caused by South Africa’s designation as a “red list” territory in terms of Covid-19 risk.
“In its place a ‘southern’ tournament, called the Rainbow Cup SA, will feature the Sharks, Stormers, Lions and Bulls taking on each other over a double round of home and away action over seven weeks. A new fixture list will be announced shortly.”
Saru CEO Jurie Roux says: “This is a huge disappointment, but time had simply run out.
“No stone was left unturned to try and find a solution to the challenges – including basing our teams for 10 days in locations in the Middle East or Europe.
“But the pieces of the jigsaw would not fall into place in time to allow us to put those plans into action.”