The New Year's Day URC derby clash between Ulster and Leinster has been postponed due to Covid cases in the Ulster camp.
The fate of the interpro was in the balance this week despite Leinster's fit and available players returning to training at UCD yesterday. Earlier this afternoon, Ulster chiefs stated that 'some uncertainty remains' over the game going ahead at Kingspan Stadium.
A scheduled Ulster press conference with head coach Dan McFarland was later postponed but URC bosses this evening confirmed that the game is off, along with two other fixtures this weekend.
Dragons v Cardiff Rugby and Edinburgh v Glasgow Warriors are the other games called off this weekend due to positive Covid cases in the Cardiff, Dragons and Glasgow squads.
The development is another blow to the URC, after all of the round eight fixtures were postponed after Christmas, including two interpros.
"The URC Medical Advisory Group has liaised with the medical teams at Cardiff, Dragons, Glasgow Warriors, Ulster and their respective health authorities and deemed that these fixtures cannot go ahead as scheduled," read a URC statement.
"The United Rugby Championship will now consider available dates to reschedule these games."
It is still hoped that the Connacht v Munster encounter fixed for the Sportsground on Saturday will go ahead as planned.
The Ulster v Leinster game was a sell-out and Ulster Rugby has also issued a statement, stating that tickets remain valid for the rescheduled fixture.
"The Ulster Rugby Ticket Office will be in touch with options once the new date has been confirmed," the statement added.
"Please note that the Ulster Rugby Ticket Office will be closed from 4pm on Friday 31 December until 10am on Tuesday 4 January, so no individual queries can be responded to during that time."
The postponement is especially bad news for Leinster, who will have gone over a month since last playing when they come up against Montpellier in a must-win Champions Cup home clash on January 16.
Ulster will hope to have enough players available to take on Munster on January 8 in preparation for their European tie with Northampton six day later
But the URC champions haven't played since beating Bath on December 11 and, following yesterday's decision, have now had four games called off since that European victory at the Aviva Stadium.
The Blues remain hopeful that EPCR will go back on their decision to award the points to Montpellier from the cancelled European game on December 18.
Since then, Leinster's St Stephen's Day clash at Munster was called off - as were all of the round eight URC fixtures. Their January 7 meeting with The Lions has also been postponed.
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