Six Nations hit
Ireland game off – England next?
The Government was last night in talks with the Rugby Football Union about whether England should follow Ireland’s lead and postpone their Guinness Six Nations match against Italy because of the threat of coronavirus.
The championship was thrown into disarray yesterday when the Irish Rugby Football Union announced that the match against Italy in Dublin on March 7 had been postponed following a briefing with Simon Harris, the Republic’s health minister.
The women’s match between Ireland and Italy, which had been scheduled for March 8, and the Under-20s game, have also been postponed following an outbreak of the virus in 11 towns in northern Italy, which are in lockdown.
It is understood that Nigel Huddleston, the new sports minister, was last night also holding talks with the RFU to consider the latest guidance from public health authorities to determine whether England’s match against Italy in Rome on March 14 should proceed. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said yesterday he would be discussing with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport whether the game should go ahead and that the UK would “join up with the [Irish] Republic” when making a decision on whether future Six Nations games should be played.
“Our goal is to minimise social disruption, of which this is an important part for any rugby fan, subject to keeping the public safe,” said Hancock.
Public Health England is advising those returning from northern Italy to self-isolate if they have symptoms of the virus. If it determines that England’s game should not go ahead, the RFU would be duty-bound to agree.
Rome is not affected by the outbreak and the Six Nations issued a statement saying that “all other matches are currently scheduled to go ahead as normal”.
However, it added that it would continue to monitor the situation “very closely with all unions and the respective government authorities and health organisations”.
The uncertainty has left the 20,000 England supporters who are expected to travel to Rome in limbo, with questions rising about travel insurance claims and tickets.
A spokesman for the Italian Rugby Federation, however, said it planned to prepare for the game as normal and, at this stage, expected it to go ahead.
The majority of the Italian squad play for Treviso and Zebre, both based in northern Italy, but it is understood that none have entered the locked-down area.
“From March 2, everything should be completely back to normality,” the spokesman added.
The Six Nations board is to meet on Monday to discuss options for rescheduling Ireland’s match against Italy. Given the season has already been squeezed by the World Cup, completing the championship will be difficult.
One possibility could be the weekend of the Champions Cup semi-finals, on May 2-3, if Leinster do not qualify as Irish and Italian players would be free to play.
The IRFU said it would be providing ticket holders with tickets for the rescheduled games or a refund.
If England’s match is also postponed, the Premiership clubs have indicated they would make their players available if the game was called off for a reason outside of the RFU’S control.
Jamie George, the England hooker, said that the experience of dealing with Typhoon Hagibis during the World Cup in Japan would enable the team to cope with whatever disruption coronavirus might cause to the championship.
England’s final pool game against France was one of four to be cancelled at short notice as the supertyphoon closed in on Honshu, but Eddie Jones, the England head coach, made light of the upheaval by relocating his squad to Miyazaki to prepare for their quarter-final against Australia, which they won.
As a 25-man squad gathered in Oxford for a three-day training camp, George insisted that their focus had not been affected by the events surrounding the coronavirus. “I’ve learnt in sport that you can’t listen to rumours about anything,” said George. “There is a serious issue going on, but we don’t know what is going to happen so all we can do is make sure that we prepare as well as we can do.
“We can take a huge amount of confidence from the way we dealt with Typhoon Hagibis. Within an hour or two, we were on a plane to Miyazaki and had a brilliant training camp down there that set us up nicely for a quarter-final and semifinal. It’s a tough situation, but one that is out of our control.”
Bath back-three player Anthony Watson and Sale back-row forward Mark Wilson have been added to the squad. Exeter Chiefs’ hooker, Luke Cowan-dickie, has been given time at home for family reasons. Saracens back-row forward Ben Earl, who won his first caps against Scotland and Ireland, has not been included, while Exeter prop Harry Williams has been preferred to Bath’s Will Stuart.