Rugby-Toulon match will never be played - Bath chairman Craig

Nov 16 (Reuters) - Bath's postponed European Championship rugby match against French side Toulon will never be played as there is not a free slot in the calendar, according to the English Premiership side's chairman Bruce Craig. The game was scheduled to take place in Toulon on Sunday but was one of five matches called off in the wake of Friday's attacks in Paris that claimed at least 129 lives. Craig, who is on the board of officials trying to reschedule the matches, said it would be impossible to find a slot for the Toulon game due to fixture congestion caused by the Rugby World Cup and England's tour of Australia next year. "It is very clear to me that the Toulon match can't happen," Craig told the Daily Telegraph on Monday. "There are simply no free weekends available between now and the end of the season. It is unacceptable that the international calendar does not take into account the domestic game. "We are playing matches right through the 2016 Six Nations championship to get everything fitted in. There are 33 weekends all accounted for and no slack," he added. "The midweek option is not an option to my mind as that would (be) to the detriment of player welfare as well as the integrity of two competitions. "There is no way we should be letting that happen. You can't play three high-profile games in a week." Craig said the issue was "not a serious matter" when viewed in the wider context of the events in Paris but the decision was of "significant consequence" from a rugby point of view. The Bath chairman also criticised the decision to sanction an England tour of Australia at the end of a World Cup season. "Why England are going off on a tour to Australia at the end of a World Cup season I don't know. What is the point? The players will be knackered," he said. "They are like lambs to the slaughter. They are just being destroyed. Have a tour before a World Cup but not after one." The English Premiership season started in October instead of September to make room for the Rugby World Cup. (Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by John O'Brien)