England’s ‘A’ international against Scotland in Leicester on Sunday has been cancelled due to positive coronavirus tests.
The Rugby Football Union said the game, scheduled to take place at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, was off “due to further Covid-19 positive tests in the Scotland squad”.
The Scottish Rugby Union confirmed that three members of the Scotland camp had tested positive for Covid-19.
Scotland’s preparations for the match were thrown into chaos on Friday after the SRU said an unnamed player had tested positive, with eight others forced to self-isolate as a precaution.
The RFU added that the game would not be rearranged.
It was meant to be the first fixture of England’s summer series, with Test matches scheduled at Twickenham against the USA next Sunday and Canada six days later.
England had included 11 uncapped players in their ‘A’ side, but there was also an experienced edge provided by the likes of Max Malins, Ollie Lawrence and Ellis Genge.
“We are, of course, very disappointed not to be playing this match and particularly playing in front of a great crowd in Leicester,” England head coach Eddie Jones said.
“However, we understand that the safety and wellbeing of all of our teams and supporters is the most important thing, and we wish Scotland the very best.”
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) June 27, 2021
In a statement, the SRU said: “The entire squad and management team were PCR-tested early on Thursday morning and, with no positive results returned from the playing group, the team travelled to Leicester on Friday afternoon,
“However, following a further round of PCR testing on Saturday morning, Scottish Rugby can confirm that three positive tests for Covid-19 have been returned.
“The three members of the camp that tested positive have started self-isolation as per Scottish Government guidelines, and the Scottish Rugby medical team have since begun internal contact-tracing to determine those that are close contacts, and as such will also have to self-isolate as per Scottish Government guidelines.”
Scotland, who have a number of players on the British and Irish Lions’ South Africa tour, are due to play Romania and Georgia next month.