Coronavirus Forces Postponement Of Ireland V Italy Six Nations Game

Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations, Women’s Six Nations and U20 Six Nations matches against Italy across the weekend of 6th – 8th March 2020 have been postponed over fears of the spread of coronavirus.

The news comes after Irish Health Minister Simon Harris said the game should be called off.

After a meeting between the IRFU and the minister, the decision was taken to postpone the game, with the governing body saying it would attempt to reschedule the fixtures.

In a statement, the IRFU said: “The IRFU had a positive meeting with Minister Harris and his advisors, where we requested a formal instruction as to the staging of the Ireland v Italy international matches over the weekend of 6th to 8th March.

“At the outset we made it clear that the IRFU was supportive of the governments’ need to protect public health in relation to the coronavirus. We were then advised, formally, that the National Public Health Emergency team has determined that the series of matches should not proceed, in the interests of public health.

“The IRFU is happy to comply with this instruction.”

The Guinness Six Nations said in a statement that it was supportive of the decision to postpone the games, adding that, for the moment, all other announced fixtures would go ahead as planned. 

“We are fully supportive of any preventative measures taken in the interests of overall public health in relation to the coronavirus and we will respect instructions provided by government authorities and health organisations. Six Nations also continues to liaise with its medical advisory group.

“We will be holding further discussions with all six unions with respect to the rescheduling options for all the affected games, factoring in the current dynamic situation.

“All other matches are currently scheduled to go ahead as normal. We will continue to monitor the situation very closely with all unions and the respective government authorities and health organisations.”

The final weekend of the Guinness Six Nations will see England travel to Rome to face Italy