BLAST FROM THE PASTP
WORLD Rugby has officially announced the cancellation of the All Blacks-Italy and England-France matches at the Rugby World Cup in Japan as Typhoon Hagibis bears down on the country.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency is monitoring Typhoon Hagibis, which is expected to lash southern Honshu over the weekend and could put further matches in the area in jeopardy.
These two matches are the first at a Rugby World Cup ever to be cancelled in its history since 1987.
Cancelling rugby Test matches is very rare; most games go ahead in rain, snow and all sorts of inclement weather, though hardly typhoons. Here’s a list of them.
Ireland vs France, Paris, 2012
This match was abandoned just two minutes after the scheduled kick-off time at the Stade de France - because the pitch was still frozen.
The capacity crowd of 80,000 people were told by the PA announcer that the ground was not deemed safe for playing a game of rugby.
Eventually the French captain Thierry Dusautoir took to the PA to reassure the crowd that the game had indeed been called off. By the time the game was due to start the air temperature was -5C.
Ireland v Scotland and Ireland v Wales, 1972
It was the height of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland and rugby became a dangerous occupation.
Ireland had beaten France and England away and turned to their home games of Scotland and Wales.
But a series of bomb threats and death threats by the IRA racheted up the pressure. The games were due to be played in the wake of the burning down of the British Embassy after Bloody Sunday.
Eventually both players and authorities decided to call off the matches.
Russia v Georgia, 2019
Perhaps unnoticed among the bigger matches of this year was the abandonment of the Russia v Georgia game in Tbilisi, Georgia.
The game was set to go ahead in August but Russian authorities decided that “demonstrations by radical persons” in protest against Russian political actionism meant the team would not travel to Georgia. Georgian authorities said they could guarantee the safety of the team. Russia wouldn’t budge. There have also been first class matches which didn’t go ahead.
Springboks v Waikato, 1981
Probably the most famous cancelled match in New Zealand history.
The Springbok tour went ahead despite massive protests against apartheid South Africa. It all came together — police and protesters — in a massive pitch invasion in Hamilton.