Coronavirus: Premiership aiming to restart on August 15

The 2019-20 Premiership season is set to return on August 15, five months after it was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this week Premiership and Championship clubs were given permission to return to non-contact training, provided they observe social distancing measures.

While no further information was given regarding the format for the remainder of the campaign, Premiership Rugby chief executive Darren Childs stressed it was vital that clubs had a target return date to work towards.

“Nothing will happen until it is safe to do so but we will do everything we can to resume the 2019-20 Premiership Rugby campaign on Saturday 15 August,” Childs said.

“We won’t take risks with people’s health, and rugby has unique challenges due to levels of proximity and impact, but with a number of clubs moving to Stage 1, it is important for us to give players, coaches and clubs clarity on when they can look to return.

“Bearing that in mind, we look forward to the restart of the season.”

Each of the 12 Premiership clubs had played 13 fixtures prior to the campaign being halted, meaning they all had nine matches remaining.

Exeter Chiefs were top of the table, five points clear of Sale Sharks, while Saracens were bottom of the table and have already been relegated following a points deduction due to salary cap breaches.

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