STEVE McNamara believes rugby league WILL overcome the Covid-19 crisis and crown champions at the end of the season.
Even if it means changing the structure of the Super League season after several games were postponed because of positive tests.
Saturday’s match with Wigan will go ahead, even though one Warriors player is self-isolating, after another round of samples on everyone else all came back negative.
The Catalans Dragons coach has himself experienced late changes after a number of players and staff contracted coronavirus.
Many believe the campaign should be called off while the number of rounds may be trimmed to make sure it can be completed.
But McNamara still believes trophies will be dished out as the season will survive.
He said: “We will find a solution.
“There have been discussions and some suggestions put forward but I’m confident there will be a Challenge Cup winner and a Grand Final winner at the end of the season.
“How that looks and everything else will wait to be seen. As it stands, it’s becoming more difficult to fulfil every fixture.
“But the sport has really responded well so far. We’re going to have to adapt.”
The next stage of rugby league’s return starts on Saturday as Catalans host Wigan in Perpignan, in front of a crowd of up to 5,000 as French regulations permit it.
An exemption allowing the Warriors to travel without having to quarantine was secured last week, which McNamara described to SunSport as ‘huge’.
So far, owner Bernard Guasch has paid about £200,000 in chartering flights to England for matches and even a reduced amount of income through the gates will help massively.
The precautions did not stop Covid-19 entering the camp, though, meaning a two-week isolation period that scuppered hopes of facing Leeds on Monday.
Isolation means Catalans cannot really prepare normally for the visit of Wigan, so McNamara wants his players to make it like child’s play.
He told SunSport: “We can’t really train much properly as we’ve been in isolation. That presents it’s own challenges as the players haven’t been able to run for two weeks.
“We’ve got Thursday, Friday then we play the game on Saturday. There’s no time for anything like a pre-season running session.
“But the players have played for years. When they were kids, they just turned up with their boots. It’s not going to be far off that!”