Scotland have been forced to call off their Test match against Romania later this month due to “several” positive Covid-19 tests being returned in the camp.
The match was due to be played in Bucharest on July 10 but has now been cancelled. All players and staff are now isolating, a statement from Scottish Rugby said.
The union’s chief executive Mark Dodson said it had “every intention” of fulfilling the fixture against Georgia on July 17.
Those players and staff who have not tested positive will embark on a graduated return to training once their isolation period ends.
Dodson said: “Player welfare is paramount in every decision that we make as an organisation, and unfortunately we’ve run out of time to allow our players to recover and train properly for the Romania fixture.
“We’re clearly disappointed, and I feel massively for both our group of players and management, as well the Romanian Rugby Federation, however our squad’s health and well-being must come first.
“We still have every intention of travelling to face Georgia the following week, subject to further medical review and testing, and we’ll hopefully be in a position where a large section of the squad will be able to return to a graduated training regime next week.”
Scotland’s interim head coach Mike Blair said: “As a camp – of both management and players – we’re obviously massively disappointed that we’ll be unable to travel and face Romania next weekend, however it is 100 per cent the correct decision, taking into account the health and well-being of this group.
“It’s clearly been a disappointing couple of days, however, since meeting as a squad over a fortnight ago, the determination and resilience shown by this group has been evident to see, and we’ll move forward with that Georgia fixture very much in focus.”
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) July 1, 2021