Surely basing the choice of start date on these factors is missing the big factor which is risk of coronavirus at the time we reopen. We locked down in a week when there were 500 deaths in the week across the UK due to coronavirus, but 2 weeks ago (the most recent data) there were 2,500 deaths in the week, and this was after two months of lockdown. As other things start to open up again you would expect the virus to start circulating more so we will still be faced with the same situation: will it be safe for fans to turn up? How do players train effectively with social distancing and what happens if someone in a squad gets coronavirus and it starts to circulate through a team. Will teams be penalised with points if they are unable to fulfil fixtures due to squad members sick or isolating?

Playing rugby league doesn't seem like a sensible thing to do when there's a risk of a serious highly contagious disease and there are a lot of carriers who don't show symptoms. Players will be put at risk of catching it and spreading it to their families, we also don't yet know enough about the long term effects. Already there are lots of people who were infected in March who are showing chronic symptoms and suffering severe fatigue, blood clots. For some players, even if their risk of death is low, getting it could put them out of action for an extended period of time, it could be the equivalent of a broken leg or torn ACL etc.

I think there's a lot of "wishing the virus away" going on.