In the wake of the emergence of a highly
contagious new variant of the coronavirus in South Africa, Welsh rugby union
teams Cardiff Blues and Scarlets have announced on Friday that they are returning
home from the country. South Africa was added to the UK’s travel red list
earlier on Friday.

After both teams announced their
withdrawal, the Vodacom United Rugby Championships announced on Friday that
they will postpone matches scheduled to take place this week and next week in
South Africa.

“The safety and well-being of our
participating clubs’ players, coaches, support staff and match officials is the
foremost priority and the URC is currently working with the four visiting clubs
– Cardiff Rugby, Munster Rugby, Scarlets and Zebre Parma – to facilitate their
return as soon as possible,” Vodacom URC said in a statement.

Taking to Twitter, Cardiff Rugby said,
“With the situation in South Africa having changed so quickly, we are now
looking to repatriate our staff ASAP. For concerned families and friends,
please rest assured that our focus is to ensure the safety and welfare of our
people and will keep you updated with any developments.”

“Following the news of a new Covid
variant in South Africa, Scarlets would like to assure families and friends
that we are making every effort to get our touring party back home to the UK as
soon as possible. We will provide further updates as soon as we can,” Scarlets
said in a statement on their website.

On Friday, the UK added six African nations
to their travel red list and stopped flights to and from those nations due to
the emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus – B.1.1.529 – which was first
detected in South Africa. The other countries added to the list are Namibia,
Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Eswatini.

Other European Union (EU) nations like
Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Malta have also followed the UK,
banning travellers who have entered South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe,
Mozambique, Namibia and Eswatini in the past two weeks.