CANBERRA Raiders will abandon a scheduled flight for the Gold Coast, diverting plans en route for Sydney to avoid a number of growing clusters of coronavirus cases spreading through south-east Queensland.
Gold Coast Titans will instead host the Raiders at Kogarah Oval on Saturday night (April 3) as part of the second leg of a double-header involving North Queensland playing Cronulla.
It will be the second time Canberra has travelled up to St George’s traditional home venue in the space of 13 days since winning a two-point thriller over Cronulla at the ground.
The Raiders were set to play their second away fixture of the 2021 NRL season at Robina.
But Titans players had already packed up and relocated off to Sydney by Wednesday after 11 COVID-19 contact tracing alerts were issued for the Gold Coast the previous night.
Ricky Stuart’s men were left in limbo three days out from an official NRL announcement of the game’s location following a shock 34-31 home loss to the NZ Warriors on Saturday.
It comes after the Brisbane Broncos were given permission from the Victorian government to travel Melbourne immediately on Monday to play the Storm on Good Friday.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo says the competition was prepared to shuffle its round-four fixtures that gives Canberra fans an extra game to support their team in Sydney.
Canberra is one of 13 clubs not directly affected by the Queensland clusters, but the Raiders have been left on level two protocols that is the standard across the NRL.
Canterbury had entered its own bubble after returning from Brisbane last weekend.
The strict protocol conditions has players and club staff banned from public transport, required to wear masks indoors and to undergo temperature testing at training.
The ACT Brumbies are unaffected this weekend amid their Super Rugby AU away clash against NSW Waratahs at the SCG on Friday night, but is scheduled to travel to Brisbane prior to facing Queensland Reds on April 10.
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