France want Ireland match played in June
IRELAND may have to wait until June to complete their Six Nations campaign if the tournament’s organising committee bows to the demands of France’s leading clubs.
Saturday’s match between Les Bleus and Ireland was postponed shortly before kick-off after referee David Pearson deemed sections of frozen turf at the Stade de France to be a danger to the safety of the players.
Six Nations officials met yesterday to try to arrange a new date for the fixture and ruled out the possibility of it taking place this Saturday or Sunday, leaving the weekend of March 3-4, originally scheduled as a rest week, the most likely alternative.
Playing the match on either of those dates would, however, see both sides forced to play on four successive weekends. Such an eventuality would further irritate the French Rugby League, which has written to Six Nations chiefs pointing out that 10 out of the 17 Top 14 weekends this season have already clashed with international fixtures.
The FRL has suggested the game be pushed back until their domestic season finishes on 9 June, but with Ireland scheduled to be touring New Zealand in the summer that idea would appear to be a non-starter.
Toulouse manager Guy Noves admitted the prospect of losing up to eight key men for an extra Top 14 match was far from ideal but confirmed he would not prevent his players from joining up with the national side.
“For me from a sporting point of view after having already played half of the championship without players the interests of rugby are the obvious priority,” he said.
“I won’t go against it (the FRL decision), that’s not my role. Trying to make up what happened now is going to be complicated.”
The Six Nations organising committee will meet again today in an attempt to reach a compromise.