John Mulvihill: Cardiff Blues head coach to miss Dragons derby
- Published
John Mulvihill is in his third season in charge at Cardiff Blues
Pro14: Dragons v Cardiff Blues |
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Venue: Rodney Parade Date: Saturday, 26 December Kick-off: 15:00 GMT |
Coverage: Live on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, the BBC Sport website and app |
Cardiff Blues will be without head coach John Mulvihill for the Boxing Day derby against Dragons.
Mulvihill is self-isolating after coming into contact with a player who has tested positive for Covid-19.
The coach attended a one-on-one meeting with a member of the senior squad on Friday, who has since returned a positive test after displaying mild symptoms.
The Pro14 match is still scheduled to go ahead.
Two squad members, who share the same house, have tested positive for Covid-19 following a community transmission, while Mulvihill must also isolate despite testing negative.
But despite his own situation, Mulvihill is confident they have minimised contact as much as possible, with no recent cases of transmission between players at training.
"In the last three weeks, we've decided to go online with all our meetings. Coaches meeting, strength and conditioning, medicals, our units with backs and forwards, are all online at the moment," he told BBC Sport Wales.
"In training, we can't stop and look at video footage, we've streamlined what we do.
"We don't come in the building (at the start of the week) until after we get our test results so that gives you a bit of surety that you're in a safe environment."
Stade Francais Paris pulled out of their European Challenge Cup match at Rodney Parade after playing a Benetton side who later recorded positive tests, even though the French club's players were all negative.
"They were probably thrown by the amount of positive cases they had earlier in the season, and they're doing quite well in their league so they were concerned it was going to affect them," commented Mulvihill.
"But I can assure them they were coming to a very safe environment."
Mulvihill will remain in close communications with the squad this week, with team meetings already taking place online, and will be linked up live to the coaches box at Rodney Parade.
Dragons director of rugby Dean Ryan missed the Pro14 match against Munster in November after being forced to self-isolate after being a close contact of a positive test.