The Six Nations meeting Ireland v France has been cancelled. The news was confirmed on Monday by the French sports minister who said the game at the Stade De France will not be played.
Roxana Maracineanu, said the game will be rescheduled, but a date is unknown as of yet. Speaking at a press conference she said, “The Six Nations match between France and Ireland will be postponed in agreement with the French Rugby Federation and tournament organisers,”. Six Nations organisers then confirmed the news themselves, they did however state they are waiting on whether the Women’s and U20 fixtures will go ahead. “Following instructions received from the authorities in France, the decision has been made to postpone the Round 5 Guinness Six Nations match between France and Ireland,”. It continued, “We are still awaiting confirmation for the Women’s and U20s fixtures.”
Six Nations organisers have yet to come up with dates for when the rescheduling of the game will occur. They continued in the statement, “No immediate announcement will be made on rescheduling as we will need to discuss with all relevant stakeholders”.
The news follows Sunday’s announcement by the French government. They announced that public gatherings of over 1,000 people would not go ahead. It means now the games will obviously have to be rescheduled. The Ireland and Italy which was due to be played last weekend was called off, as was England’s trip to Rome to take on the Italians this coming weekend. That now just leaves one game down for decision which is Wales v Scotland which looks set to go ahead. The U20 game between the sides will also go ahead. The women’s rugby game will not be played after player tested positive for coronavirus.
Ireland boss Andy Farrell said his players were somewhat disappointed that the game was cancelled. He said, “Gutted. We’ve built up for a couple of weeks on the back of a bit of disappointment and we were looking forward to the week ahead for ourselves”. He continued, “The reaction of the players when we’ve come off the back of a good morning’s work was one of deflation a little bit,”.
