CORONA CHAOS
Italy game ‘off’, Cheltenham and Olympics at risk
THE IRELAND-ITALY Six Nations match seems certain to be cancelled despite the IRFU setting itself on a remarkable collision course with the government over the State’s response to the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
And the fate of the remaining fixtures in the Six Nations is highly uncertain as European authorities grapple with the threat of a pandemic that also imperils next month’s Cheltenham Festival, and in the longer term could lead to the cancellation of Euro 2020 and the Tokyo Olympics.
The Department of Health here recommended the cancellation of the match against Italy at Lansdowne Road on Saturday week in response to the rapid spread of the virus through Italy.
Rather than the presumed acceptance of this from the rugby authorities, the IRFU subsequently issued a startling demand for an ‘urgent meeting’ with Minister for Health, Simon Harris, to ascertain ‘the specific reasoning’ behind the demand for a cancellation. But despite the clear anger at the call, the prospects of the game being
played seem nil. And if the Ireland-Italy match doesn’t go ahead, it calls into question the remaining games in the entire tournament. The 2001 foot and mouth crisis provides a precedent for countries having certain games delayed, but the current situation is graver as its reach is much further and affects a far wider area. While the advice of the Department of Health is given in the context of the spread of the disease in Italy, where there are now over 280 cases confirmed and 10 people have died from coronavirus, cases were confirmed yesterday in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Croatia. Meanwhile, the spread of coronavirus was described yesterday by a senior member of the International Olympic Committee as ‘the new war’. In the most alarming official comments to date over the threat to the 2020 Games, Dick Pound warned organisers would need a minimum of two months to know if they can go ahead safely with the Games, which open on July 24. ‘You’ve got to start ramping up your security, food, the Olympic Village, the hotels, the media will be in there building their studios. This is the new war and you have to face it. Around that time, I’d say folks are going to have to ask, “Is this under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to Tokyo, or not?”,’ said Pound yesterday.