CALL-OFF WOULD BE HARSH ON SCOTLAND
France have a cast of thousands they can call on to fulfil the fixture
FRANCE aren’t Fiji. And the Six Nations isn’t some improvised tournament thrown together just to give everyone a few games. So Scotland won’t simply be handed a 28-0 ‘win’ without setting foot in Paris. Not just yet, anyway.
As Championship organisers meet to discuss the first great Covid crisis of this year’s tournament, however, it is clear that the subjective and selective topic of ‘sporting integrity’ remains as opaque as a glass of particularly cloudy pastis.
Yes, the contingency plans put in place always left open the possibility of playing in bye weeks.
Speaking before the start of the tournament, Six Nations chief executive Ben Morel flagged up just such a scenario.
Fiji were forced to concede all of their group games in the Autumn Nations Cup, remember, after an outbreak in camp.
Asked if those same rules would apply to the northern hemisphere’s flagship tournament, Morel insisted: ‘The primary focus would be to reschedule.
‘The reason why we went for immediate results during the Nations Cup was that it had to progress because there was a finals weekend.
‘We would obviously want to protect the sporting integrity of the Six Nations as much as possible.
‘We are confident in our ability to stage the matches at the right time. It’s more what logistical gymnastics we need to adapt to.’
There’s a long list of leaders — sporting and civil — who have misused the word ‘confident’ over the past 12 months. Morel merely joins the queue.
Because, from the outside looking in, plenty could see the potential for this kind of chaos.
And it feels almost inevitable, not to mention very in keeping with rugby’s unwritten rules of hierarchy, that the first measure being considered is one that looks after the interests of a ‘big team’ — even if that puts the opposition at a disadvantage.
‘Our preference will always be to finish the tournament,’ an unnamed Six Nations source told French website RMC yesterday.
‘If there is a problem and France can’t field a team, our preference would be to postpone the game rather than cancel it.’
There lies the rub. If France cannot field a team? If a country with more registered rugby players than any other nation on the planet cannot field a team, well, they’re just not trying very hard.
Look, you can see why Gregor Townsend would rather take his team to Paris this weekend — and send them out against whatever sort of scratch XV opposite number Fabien Galthie could pull together from his isolation cell.
Pushing the game back a week just to get the home side back to full strength would not be Townsend’s preferred option.
Even if all the English clubs waive their rights under the famous Regulation 9 covering international availability, allowing key players such as Stuart Hogg to stay and play for Scotland, the loss of even one squad member leaves the visitors weakened.
Tough luck? Stuff happens? Well, you could say the same to Galthie.
A number of French rugby writers and ex-players having been pulling together their Alternative Bleus
XV in the past 24 hours, anticipating the worst happening.
And, even without the 11 players sidelined by positive tests or close contacts, it’s not as if the French would be short of firepower.
A front row of Hassane Kolingar (Racing 92), Pierre Bourgarit (La Rochelle) and Demba Bamba (Lyon) can hardly be considered a pushover.
Kolingar was excellent against England in December, while Bamba is back from injury and looking stronger than ever.
Either Anthony Jelonch (Castres) or Dylan Cretin (Lyon) would be decent deputies for infected France captain Charles Ollivon.
All over the park, in this alternative universe where the game goes ahead as scheduled, there are either experienced internationals or bright young things capable of more than just filling a jersey.
So, yes, it’s unfortunate that something has gone wrong in the French ‘bubble’. Questions about that will surely be asked at the highest levels.
But Scotland’s Covid-19 protocols have been, touch wood, extremely effective to date.
Any solution to this situation that tilts the ‘integrity’ of the competition away from the innocent party just can’t be right. Can it?
Asking Scotland to play three games on three consecutive weekends, the kind of schedule that always works against nations with less strength in depth, certainly feels like anything but a fair solution.
And that’s before we start on the whole issue of player safety in this age of mutating strains.
Do we trust France to get their act together in time for Sunday week? What if there are more positives?
What if the first alternate date has to be scratched, forcing the whole tournament to be extended?
That, of course, is the kind of worst-case scenario that organisers of major tournaments are paid to consider. Some do it better than others.
Those responsible for the Six Nations cannot claim, however, that this has taken them by surprise.
If they could dismiss the Fiji case as something that happens to other people, the way in which European rugby was disrupted just weeks before the start of the Championship should have been a warning.
The Champions Cup and Challenge Cup were both suspended back in January, remember.
Still, we were assured that everything would be all right on the night, once the Six Nations came around.
Yet the French Government remained uncertain over the prospects of the tournament going ahead right up until just days before kick-off.
You probably missed Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu going on about the country’s commitment to ensuring that the Six Nations would commence as planned earlier this month.
To recap, Maracineanu played to the galleries on decision day, declaring: ‘It was a decision everyone in rugby was awaiting.
‘The FFR [French Rugby Union Federation] submitted to us a rigorous, strict protocol, which was then submitted to the health authorities.
‘The decision has been taken within government to ensure that the Six Nations is held on the scheduled date, starting February 6, with a bio-secure bubble, as was the case with the Tour de France.’
In hindsight, the former swimmer’s words look a little foolish. Yet few objected at the time.
We allowed ourselves to believe because, even among the most cynical of our number, there is no optimist quite like the average sports fan. Putting faith in lost or hopeless causes is just what we do.
So, with knowing comments about TV contracts and sponsorship demands, we bought into the easy sell.
As the past couple of days have reminded everyone, however, making plans further than two hours in advance feels like an act of supreme folly.
Between now and tomorrow evening’s meeting of the Six Nations Testing Oversight Group, any number of fresh crises may arise.