The cabinet will meet today with an announcement expected around 5 pm on a range of new restrictions to counter the growing renewed threat of the Omicron variant of the virus.
Pubs and restaurants look set to be closed no later than 5 Pm from Monday in a bid to break transmission in the week before Christmas.
Lockdowns and restrictions have tended to last longer than originally thought likely and we are getting into a cycle now that Winter activity is at real risk for who knows how long.
What a depressing thought.
The hammer has already fallen on Leinster’s trip to Montpellier with a 28-0 defeat not what would have been hoped for. It leaves them with two more games against Bath and Montpellier to secure a Top 8 position and a place in the last 16. That should be OK but will there be an impact on seeding for a home or away fixture, and what happens now that France has restricted movement from the UK?
From a sports perspective, we have to maintain a degree of optimism and hope that whatever is needed now will be able to be relaxed by the end of January.
That is when the Allianz Leagues in Gaelic Games kick in, the Guinness Six Nations get underway the SSE Airtricity League gets back into the grounds, and the tapes go up for the Dublin Racing Festival.
A restriction on attendance at those events would be a particularly harsh blow to take.
But looking realistically, and ‘suggested’ restrictions have tended to be pretty spot on, what will we face in sporting terms over the Christmas period.
Indoor sport:
Basketball has been enjoying a great season, after pent up demand was created over 2020 and 2021. The Finals of the Cup competitions come at the end of January and 50 per cent attendance for Indoor venues would be a blow but so long as the sport can continue it will.
Not being able to host events after 5 PM would be a blow and would impact TV viewing but again it could be managed.
Horse and Greyhound Racing:
Leopardstown and Limerick Racing festivals are two of the biggest sporting and social events which could be impacted. Attendance is restricted to less than 50 per cent anyway and there is greater space at a racecourse but Leopardstown in particular will need to lobby hard today to make a top figure 6,000 rather than the somewhat arbitrary 5,000 that has been spoken of.
That is the attendance that has been booked out on four sold-out days from December 26th. If it is 6,000 the everything can go ahead as planned. If it is reduced by 20 per cent how will that be managed? Will it be an automatic refund for the last 20 per cent to have bought a ticket? Will it have to be more to accommodate the number of people that will be there to stage the event>?
If 5,000 is the number, can there be an exemption for those four days?
Rugby:
There are four local derbies scheduled across St Stephens Day and New Years Day. Every one of them is scheduled to take place later than the supposed 5 PM curfew.
Munster are due to face Leinster at Thomond Park on 26th at 19:35 and then they travel to Connacht on New Years Day for a 17:15 start.
There is an extra kink for the two others with Ulster hosting Connacht on 26th and then Leinster on the 1st, both at the Kingspan Stadium.
The restrictions in Northern Ireland are likely to be different and as things stand at present there would be no restriction on those.
But then is it right that if the game was at the RDS it would be limited to 5,000 in order to protect against it becoming a sup spreader event, but it’d be OK for thousands to travel to Belfast to watch in a full stadium and be heading back down to be home before midnight?
It would wreck your head and sport is only one of the factors to be considered.
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