Irish gear up for Paris clash as Six Nations give go ahead
SIX NATIONS organisers remain adamant that the remaining matches will go ahead as scheduled, despite England’s trip to Rome next week becoming the latest game to be postponed due to the spread of the coronavirus.
As things stand, those games include Ireland’s meeting with France, although there is still some doubt around the fixture after the French Federation met with government officials earlier this week.
England’s game against Italy had been due to be played behind closed doors before the
Wayne Rooney was unable to haunt his old club as Odion Ighalo bagged a brace and United booked a last eight clash at Norwich City with the tie scheduled for the weekend of Saturday, March 21. United were without injured skipper Harry Maguire but were rarely troubled in the fifth
Italian government ruled that it should be postponed.
With Ireland’s home clash against the Azzurri — originally scheduled for tomorrow — having suffered the same fate, Andy Farrell’s side trained as normal this week, and yesterday got a hit-out against Ulster in Dublin. round clash. Luke Shaw grabbed the opener on 33 minutes and Ighalo netted the second five minutes before half-time.
The visitors were in control and the Nigerian produced a composed finish in the 70th minute.
It was Ighalo’s first double for an English club since netting
The squad will now take the next three days off before reconvening on Sunday evening with the intention of ramping up their preparations for next week’s game at the Stade de France.
However, as has been the case with both postponed games thus far, the relevant governments twice for Watford against Liverpool in a Premier League game in December, 2015.
The Championship side, however, refused to give up and Sergio Romero had to make a smart save to deny Jack Marriott before tipping over Rooney’s late free-kick. There was no hat-trick will have the final say on the matter.
“Based on the information that is currently available, all other Six Nations matches are set to go ahead as scheduled,” a statement from the Six Nations read.
“As previously stated, Six Nations
fully intends to complete all 15 games across all three championships when time allows. We will refrain from making any rescheduling announcements while we keep assessing the situation.”