Better to think of sunny days in Naples

THE Italians may think twice before they arrange a rugby fixture in Ireland in January again but at least their journey has not been in vain for, unlike their matches against Caerphilly and Llanelli earlier in the week, the game at Lansdowne Road today is expected to survive the weather.

More than 100 people worked through yesterday to ensure that the ground would be ready for this afternoon's international while the IRFU bought in 25 tons of salt ink order to grit the terraces and main entrances to the ground.

The pitch has been covered to protect it from the worst of the weather and IRFU secretary Philip Browne said that "the pitch is dry and perfectly playable underneath the covers, so we have no fears about the game going ahead."

The cold spell continued to take its toll on the racing programme, though, with today's meeting at Naas put back to next Thursday while there will be an inspection at three o'clock today to decide whether Fairyhouse can go ahead tomorrow. Three cross channel meetings are still scheduled to provide racing.

Monday's meeting at Thurles is also subject to an inspection and the stewards will initially look at the condition of the course at 8.30 tomorrow morning before deciding on whether or not to proceed. Tonight's greyhound meeting at Shelbourne Park will, however, go ahead unless conditions deteriorate considerably today.

In the National Soccer League, the game arranged for Whitehall between Home Farm and Sligo has been postponed, although in this case it is not because of the weather at least not directly. With more than half of his first team suffering from flu, Sligo manager Jimmy Mullen asked for the delay which was agreed to yesterday by the league.

No problems' are expected at the Brandywell this evening where Derry City take on UCD while tomorrow's matches at Bray and St Patrick's Athletic are both scheduled to go ahead despite the conditions.

In Gaelic games, it is hoped that tomorrow's four O'Byrne Cup matches will be played, although there are pitch inspections at all of the venues at noon today after which decisions on each will be made.

Today's hockey programmes in Leinster, Munster and Ulster are also severely threatened by snow and frost, yet, following inspections, a number of pitches may be playable.

In England, meanwhile, the FA Cup programme has been seriously disrupted with 12 games definitely off by last night and many more subject to early morning pitch inspections.

Five of the postponed ties involve Premiership clubs - Leeds' clash at Manchester City, Derby's tough fixture at Gillingham, Leicester's home meeting with Southend, Coventry's clash with Woking and Wimbledon's visit to Crewe.

The remaining seven postponements are the ties at Barnsley, Brentford, Chesterfield, non league Hednesford, Luton, Stoke and Watford.

In Scotland at least five cup games are off but that figure is expected to grow considerably by lunchtime today.

Rangers manager Walter Smith, meanwhile, wants his side's visit to Hibernian to be postponed by the Scottish League, but like Sligo's case, is because of a flu virus at Ibrox.

In rugby, Orrell have reconsidered their threat to take legal action against London Irish over the way their league, match was postponed. London, Irish said that they were entitled to call off the game because of the number of their players involved at Lansdowne Road this afternoon.

Orrell club officials said, however, that they had not been informed of the decision which they claimed would lead to a loss of considerable revenue although they abandoned their efforts to press ahead with having the game played today as their ground was frozen.

There will be a pitch inspection at Leicester this morning to decide whether the European Cup semifinal against Toulouse can go ahead.