Premiership hit by severe weather as Harlequins forced to postpone Bath match due to travel cancellations

The Friday night Aviva Premiership clash between Harlequins and Bath has been called off little more than five hours before kick-off, despite the pitch being in a fully-playable condition after being protected from the ‘Beast of the East’ snow storm.

Having kept the pitch under a protective inflatable dome all week, Harlequins were confident of staging the fixture against Bath without any problems, but saw the decision taken out of their hands when more snow hit London and resulted in South Western Railway ending their train service from 20:00 on Friday evening.

That would have left thousands of fans stranded in the Richmond and Twickenham area, and after advice was issued for anyone not to travel unless it was a necessity, the decision was taken to call off the match and reschedule it for Sunday afternoon.

“We will always prioritise the safety of our supporters and club staff,” a Premiership Rugby spokesman said, with confirmation of a kick-off time set to follow on Friday evening.

That suddenly leaves a Premiership weekend that was supposed to feature two Sunday matches now boasting a bumper four kick-offs, with the replay of last season’s final between Exeter Chiefs and Saracens at Sandy Park already being postponed by 24 hours from its original Saturday slot.

With all round 17 matches set to go ahead providing the weather plays ball across the weekend, eyes will be on the clash in the west country after two names were included on the team sheet in centre Henry Slade and back-row Sam Simmonds. Slade will make his first start since recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in the European Champions Cup defeat by Glasgow Warriors in January, while Simmonds is back from a similar knock that he picked up shortly before half-time in England’s Six Nations victory over Wales last month.

Simmonds is named on the replacements’ bench, but providing the pair come through the encounter unscathed, both could well return to Eddie Jones’ England squad ahead of next weekend’s trip to Paris to face France.

Saracens meanwhile have George Kruis back from international duty, with the British and Irish Lions lock released by Jones for the weekend in a bid to up his game time. While Kruis starts the match, neither Kyle Sinckler nor Charlie Ewels – the two other players released this week – have made their starting line-ups, with the pair on the bench for Harlequins and Bath respectively in Sunday’s rearranged encounter.

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Saracens also include an interesting name on the bench in Blair Cowan, the Scottish back-row, who has joined the reigning European champions until the end of the season on loan from London Irish. Despite being one of the Exiles’ best players and leading internationals, he missed their Premiership fixtures last month due to personal reasons, and while he can be recalled by Irish at any point of the season, it’s likely that Cowan has played his last game for the club as they stare relegation in the face.

But all of this is dependent on the rugby actually going ahead. That means the weather needs to play ball, and after the United Kingdom received a fresh blanket of snow on Friday, Saturday’s matches between Gloucester and Newcastle, and Northampton and Sale, could well find themselves under threat. The weekend’s events lies in Mother Nature’s hands.