RUGBY:RESCHEDULING LAST Saturday's cancelled match at the Stade de France to outside the Six Nations window – the options being August or September – received a frosty reception by an IRFU spokesman yesterday.
French sports newspaper L’Equipe reported yesterday that Ireland’s return to Paris was poised to be announced as Sunday, March 4th with a 5pm (Irish time) kick-off, with an alternative date being in the autumn.
“September isn’t really an option,” said Karl Richardson, the IRFU communications manager. “For the integrity of the tournament you don’t want to move it outside the current window.”
There is, however, precedent as Ireland played three Six Nations fixtures in September and October, 2001. However, the postponements of the Scotland, Wales and England games were due to the outbreak of the highly infectious livestock disease foot-and- mouth in the United Kingdom.
A March 4th fixture also means a six-day turnaround before Scotland come to Dublin.
“Four games in a row wouldn’t be ideal but that’s what we have to deal with,” Richardson continued. “You would be looking for seven-day turnaround between all our games if we are playing four in four weeks.”
The Six Nations council have stated the need to overcome “very significant logistical reasons” before settling on a new date. They were unable to solve these problems yesterday but will endeavour to do so by this afternoon. All they could confirm was that the match will not take place this coming weekend.
Ireland are represented on the council by former IRFU president Peter Boyle and Pa Whelan, a former international hooker, manager and selector.
The controversy surrounding the postponement of France’s meeting with Ireland in Paris on Saturday took a remarkable twist yesterday when French league authorities requested that the rearranged fixture should not be played until after the Top 14 season is over.
In a letter sent to the Six Nations organising committee, the president of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), Pierre-Yves Revol, made it clear that his organisation was opposed to the game being rearranged for any time before the Top 14 final on June 9th.
The news came shortly before the Six Nations confirmed that the match would not take place this weekend – a date that was always unlikely given that over 50,000 tickets had been sold ahead of Saturday’s game between Stade Francais and Toulon at the Stade de France.
As a French sports ministry investigation into the postponement continued, Revol said that rearranging the game for the first weekend of March would be unacceptable.
“The postponement of the Six Nations match between France and Ireland took place in very controversial circumstances which sparked a lively debate in France, all the more so during the same weekend that numerous Top 14 matches took place,” his letter read.
“We would like to point out to you that a Top 14 match day is scheduled for this weekend [March 3rd-4th] and that we have no weekends available to change our calendar.”
Revol suggested that French clubs had already gone to extraordinary lengths this season, with international players having missed out on 10 Top 14 fixtures.
“Taking into account the World Cup, French clubs agreed to make a considerable effort this season and our championship has been heavily impacted upon.
“As a result, the LNR and French clubs do not know how it would put up with the consequences of the France-Ireland match being cancelled and being asked to be deprived of their international players for an extra week that was not foreseen in the convention signed with our federation.”
The unusual request emerged as the post-mortem into the cancellation continued.
French sports minister David Douillet called the situation “a disaster” but he defended the role of the French Rugby Federation (FFR).
Douillet also told rugby weekly Midi Olympique that he expected to meet with the consortium that runs the Stade de France this week.
“Obviously I need some explanations,” he said. “You can’t mobilise 80,000 people and say to them, two minutes before kick-off, that the fixture will not take place.”
The consortium, which keeps a healthy chunk of the profit from international matches, has yet to make a public statement.
Meanwhile, the FFR once again defended their actions, indicating that they contacted the Six Nations last Monday to highlight their concerns over the weather, and that they also asked the Stade de France to be extra vigilant.
Although terms and conditions stated that tickets for Saturday’s match are not refundable in the case of a cancellation or postponement, FFR president Pierre Camou said they were seeking a favourable solution for supporters.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s two-day camp in Belfast this week has been cancelled.
Eight additional, yet unnamed, players will join the squad in Carton House tomorrow for a one-day session instead. The 15 players not selected in the original team to play France will then be released back to their provinces for this weekend’s RaboDirect Pro 12 fixtures.
Scotland flanker Alasdair Strokosch is likely to miss the rest of the Six Nations campaign after fracturing his hand in Sunday’s defeat to Wales at the Millennium Stadium.
