This evening’s Six Nations match between France and Ireland was called off minutes before kick-off due to an unplayable pitch. We were all set to liveblog the action; instead, we ended up liveblogging a postponement.
As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on this evening’s events. E-mail niall@thescore.ie, tweet @thescore_ie, post a message to our Facebook wall, or leave a comment below.
France P-P Ireland
Evening all and welcome to this evening’s liveblog. It’s a cold night in Paris, but the covers are off in the Stade de France. Kick-off is at 8pm, so I’ll just pull on my mittens and my woolly hat and we’ll have the team news.
First things first, here’s Ireland. Jonny Sexton has been cleared to play despite an injury scare; he starts at 10 with Ronan O’Gara on the bench and Paddy Wallace regretting his flight out to Paris.
Ireland: R Kearney; Bowe, Earls, D’Arcy, Trimble; Sexton, Murray; Healy, Best, Ross; O’Callaghan, O’Connell; Ferris, O’Brien, Heaslip. Replacements: Cronin, Court, Ryan, O’Mahony, Reddan, O’Gara, McFadden.
And here’s the French side. Philippe Saint-Andre has made four changes from the side which beat Italy 30-12 here last Saturday. Morgan Parra comes in at scrum-half to replace the injured Dimitri Yachvili, who pulled out of the squad on Thursday with a back problem.
France: Medard; Clerc, Rougerie, Fofana, Malzieu; Trinh-Duc, Parra; Poux, Szarzewski, Mas; Pape, Maestri; Dusautoir (c), Harinordoquy, Picamoles. Replacements: Servat, Debaty, Nallet, Bonnaire, Dupuy, Beauxis, Mermoz.
There is a rather serious-looking conference currently taking place pitchside involving Declan Kidney, Philippe Saint-Andre, referee Dave Pearson and some other officious folk. The jist of it seems to be that nobody is quite sure if the Stade de France pitch is in fact playable. More on that as soon as we get it, obviously — it’s rather important.
Not to steer too far clear of rugby matters, but here’s a quick weather-related catch up.
France is currently in the middle of a rather nasty cold snap, with temperatures forecast to drop as low as -7C this evening. There’s no undersoil heating in the Stade de France, but the pitch has been covered all week and they’ve been using air heaters (think industrial-strength hairdryers) to keep the ground temperature above freezing.
Referee Dave Pearson inspected the pitch yesterday afternoon and passed it playable. He inspected the pitch again when the covers came off at 6.15 Irish time this evening, and passed it playable.
But now, the pitch is freezing again and the game appears to be in jeopardy. Let’s wait and see what the outcome of this pitchside meeting is.
It looks very much like this one is off, folks. Pitch unplayable due to freezing conditions.
MATCH POSTPONED – PITCH UNPLAYABLE DUE TO FREEZING CONDITIONS
That’s it unfortunately, folks. We’ll keep you posted on all the latest.
Earlier in the week, we were told that if the game was postponed, it will be refixed for 2 March. Awaiting confirmation on that, but the early indicators are that that will be case.
What an absolute mess. It’s 9:05pm in France, there are 80,000 people in a stadium — many of whom travelled from Ireland — and there’s no game.
Obviously player safety is paramount, and this decision had to be taken, but surely it could have been taken a bit earlier. Like, Wednesday?
I have to say, I appreciated Frank Jones’ humour in the comments section:
We wont be beaten!! Well, not tonight
Some poor lady from RBS Six Nations has been given the honour of officially informing the crowd that the game is off. Judging by their whistles, they’re not happy. Who can blame them?
The players from both sides are now down on the pitch, standing around looking rather glum. They’re just going to do some warm-up/down drills, and that’ll be it for them this evening.
Deccie has been on BBC2. Here’s what he had to say:
“I think the referee has made the right decision.
“International rugby isn’t something where you turn up and go for a friendly jog around. But they’re great lads and they’ll settle down again.”
Asked about a refixed date for the game, Kidney suggested that there is a slight possibility that the game could be refixed for next weekend. The other option is 2 March, which is the Friday night after Ireland play Italy in Dublin. The final call rests with the Six Nations organisers, and they should make a call by Monday at the latest.
The good lads at Whiff of Cordite have just been in touch to inform me that there is a Top 14 game between Stade Francais and Toulon scheduled for the Stade de France next Saturday, 18 February. Obviously, that changes things slightly in relation to a new date, but I’m sure somebody in the Six Nations is getting paid big bucks to take that into account.
So, to recap the evening’s main points:
- France v Ireland has been postponed due to an unplayable pitch.
- No date has been officially confirmed for the refixed game — although there is a chance it could be played on Friday 2 March.
- Declan Kidney has said that he expects a decision to be made by Monday at latest.
To answer a question that seems to be floating around a bit — no, I don’t know how a stadium that is less than 20 years old has no undersoil heating.
That’s all I’ve got for you, folks. A massively disappointing evening for all involved, not least those fans who shelled out to travel to Paris.
But, as always, player safety is paramount and it was pretty apparent by kick-off time that the Stade de France pitch was unplayable. Why that decision couldn’t have been taken sooner isn’t clear, but I’m sure we’re not done talking yet.
We’ll be back tomorrow for Wales v Scotland. See you then.
Sarkozy has the ball and won’t give it back until we sign the treaty.
We’re lucky, sitting at home in our armchairs or in the pubs. Spare a thought for the hard core fans who spent hard-earned euros getting over there. It should have been called off 12 hours before to give people, Irish and French, the chance to stay at home and save travel costs.
Organisers of this match should be an example of how not to handle things. Idiots!
100% well said.
Jesus, there’s Mr. Dalton in the middle of all the comments. Been a long time fella. How’s yourself? Spot on comment by the way!
Undefeated Irish team walk out of Stade de France with their heads held high ;)
Bullshit cancelling the match 2 minutes before it starts!!!
The wife just walked in, put the romantic comedy on the tv and my beer doesn’t taste so good now. I feel worse then if I had watched Ireland loose by a cricket score.I taught the compulsory time together was on valentines day? I feel cheated!
She’s done you there Frank, you have my sympathy. You don’t think she was involved with the decision do you?
How pissed off must the fans who went over be
anyone know if police game was played last night between joint garda/psni and french?
Irish won 16-12 I believe.
Cheers for that Michael. Wow 16 thumbs down for a simple question..amazing really.
Thanks again Michael
Its been frozen all week. It should of not gone this far. Are the fans going to fork out for another weekend away in Paris? I doubt it. The fans attending should at least be offered a refund for the ticket.
That should include travel and accommodation aswell!
the match should be reschedule for Lansdowne Road; put the expense of travel & accommodation on the French; and they will also get to see a pitch with underground heating at the same time.
the match should be reschedule for Lansdowne Road; put the expense of travel & accommodation on the French;
oops sorry for the double post; Journal can you please remove the duplicate; got the usual “must log on to comment – hit back” and the message posted twice…………….
Disgraceful. for the people who spent hard earned money to get there. Rugby is not looking good at the moment
I’m just back from a holiday in France, the maximum temperature where I was was 2 degrees, the lowest was -22. This cold snap didn’t just happen overnight, it had been forecast for days. It’s a disgrace that it was called off so late! And ridiculous that a match was scheduled for 9pm on a Saturday night.
You can blame the sponsors for that! 9pm for maximum returns… be it beer or advertisement viewing figures. They are ruining the sport in the search for higher profits.
Any young kid could have told you that it gets colder in the night than the day.
It’s been freezing in Paris all week. There’s no under pitch heating. The forecast didn’t look good. This should have been called off yesterday morning at the latest before Irish fans travelled let alone before 80000 people were sitting in Stad De France. So how many will travel for the rescheduled match? This could have been avoided – totally unacceptable
We wont be beaten!! Well, not tonight
And they slag the Irish off about being backward !!!!
Someone needs to tell the band the games off
A fans suggestion ‘There should be a rule to make home sides forfeit home advantage if they are unable to fulfil a fixture’ Good idea?
Absolutely not. The French team weren’t the people who decided to arrange a rugby match at 9pm.
Match should be reset and played in Dublin next week! Only way to be fare to fans on both sides.
No underground heating. Omg.
Controversy at Stade de France. Things badly HANDLED. DEJA VU.
Pitch is rock hard. You can’t play in those conditions. What did the idiots expect? Ridiculous
Yeah can you imagine the injuries.
Another reason to dis-like the French.
Surely it’s a case of the officials and not the French being the problem the officials knew the weather forecast …they knew there was no under soil heating …they could have changed the time to the afternoon when temperatures were not as cold….
For god sake! Why in gods name was the game scheduled for 9pm? I think the IRB need to go back to primary school to learn that it gets colder in the night… not warmer!
Sounds like a walkover… Ireland should take the points, and all Irish supporters who travelled be compensated by the frogs!
I blame Al Gore for the absence of his promised fecking global warming. :)
French p*ss off the Irish in Stadt de Freeze once again….
Lads / Lassies , the grammar and spelling mistakes here are incredible!! Seriously it’s driving me mad!!! Ye are all grown-ups for fuck sake!!!
are you for real?????? hate it when people point stupid spelling mistakes you know what it says get over it !!
Richard some people have learning difficulties like myself I am still entitled to comment even if spelling r grammar is not good
cannot believe it was left until now to call it off. should have been called off no later than inspection at 90 mins beforehand.
Sean, they could have called it off Thursday by looking at the pitch at 9pm CET and see what it would be like given the continued freezing forecast!! Wouldn’t happen in the footie, to be fair
They should have rearranged the match for an earlier time. The decision was made much too late
This sort of fiasco reminds me of how the French could not organise a ride in a brothel this was obvious even to the armature poor supporters who have gone to the expense of this on both sides
Vive le Farce!
looks like the french got cold feet……… literally
We’d be very hard on ourselves as a nation if this happened….
How about reorganising the game in Dublin rather than Paris – at least that would partially compensate the Irish fans who have travelled and can’t afford to travel again
French TV asked on Tuesday already if the game could be played at 3pm instead of 9pm, proposition rejected by the 6 Nations committee
So disappointed with no match and the abandonment of the Dublin Mayo game. Going to be a long boring night now.
Another subject for us Irish to moan about,Roll on Joe Duffy Monday morn!!!
At least all those women folk got even longer with their man for the valentines weekend. Looks like the airlines and hotels will have another weekend to rape customers for the next fixture.
ah yea them women folk lololol what a funny expression – you’d swear we’re different species lol ;-)
Bloody disgrace …………………
Sacrebleu! Or alla bru- shet! As Delboy would say
Very incompetently handled
Irish rugby fans
French Primetime TV rights
Disgraceful refereeing
french twats they could of prevented this,all them fans over there must be fuming…
I hear you Jimbo, all good honouring the tickets for the rematch. What about the flights, hotel, transport, food etc. If it were the other way round, I’m sure the French supporters would be fuming angry.
French supporters also are fuming angry, especially those who came from the other side of the country and also had to pay for transport, accommodation and everything else.
someone’s head will be on the chopping block for the late announcement! Unacceptable.
Such a French thing to do
I feel like eating 15 frogs in 80 mins
I much prefer listening to Peter Collins than watching Six Nations, the drama in his voice is so genuine
i hope that’s sarcasm..cos the lads brutal
Damn & blast – I was so looking forward to this match tonight from the cozy warmth of my London Home. The late decision to call it off is abominable even unacceptable despite the conditions. Last night conditions here hit -9c. I couldn’t open the car doors, the water in the washer remained frozen solid for the day despite a 300 mile round journey I took and the snow on the car had frozen to a really rock hard substance I’ve never known the like of before yet they waited until the last second to call off the match. It sucks!
Professional rugby is crap anyway but things like this reveal how impoverished we all are that player health and safety is paramount rather than the simple purpose of the game. When I played in the good old days when you could get away with punching the opposition, stamping on his head and generally enjoying all-round man-fun, I played in fog, torrential rain, freezing ground frost, seas of muck, and with a leather ball you could never be sure would retain its shape. Damn and blast Sky Tv and the RFU for ever creating ‘professional rugby’. The players are supreme sportsmen but the rules make them look like fairies!
Unlike many other stadiums, the Stade de France was built without under pitch heating, as the stadium was constructed on the site of an old gasworks [9], and there were concerns it could cause an explosion.
That explains it
Did they never hear of gas heating for feck sake !
Got to love those saying it’s a ploy from “the mean French who did it on purpose to to make the Irish pay for not signing the treaty”. Maybe you should stop generalising.
Everyone in France was saying a kick off at 9pm was completely irresponsible. French media even asked (on Tuesday) if the match could be postponed at 3pm instead, but it was vetoed by the IRB. Guess the idea of losing €/£ by not showing the game on prime time TV was too big a sacrifice for them, and in the end they’re not showing anything.
Celine – I think the person who posted that meant it as a joke! :-)
its off
Every year 6 countries partake in the 6 nations, no need to stress about it, it’s not like the World Cup which only happens every 4 years between 32 countries from a total membership of 208 countries worldwide. The only people who are disappointed by this cancellation are upwardly mobile people with nothing better to worry about, boo hoo, my weekend in Paris has been ruined because the egg ball has been called off. Rugby in South Dublin in particular (i.e. 4×4 in Ranelagh with Tribeca chicken wings on a Sunday) is the doyen of those who crave for the good old days of the Celtic Tiger, in the last 10 years in Ireland it’s become an unhealthy obssession, it is elitist outside of Limerick, the domain of the wealthy schoolchildren along the Stillorgan dual carriageway. Half of the people in the pub just want to see Tommy Bowe’s legs loik, roysch! Rugby is possibly the most entertaining sport in the world, but people on here acting like an atrocity has occurred need to get a life, and they also need to name players from Irish teams before Brian O’Driscoll and Ronan O’Gara came on the scene, yes i’m looking at you.
I from coolock and I was very pissed off !!
What a load of crap. I thought people like you and your stuffy opinion’s went out with the boom.
There is a place outside of limerick and Dublin…. It’s called the “rest of the country” you twat!!! Don’t tar all us rugby fans with the one brush….we are not all d4 bell ends!!!
Those French sniggering at the Irish. Gotja again Paddy! If we can’t get yeas on the 12.5% corpo tax, we’ll give yeas the run around gay paris for nothing. If they can’t deliver, penalties should apply.
I was looking forward to that. Anyone want to sell me their ticket for the rematch?
All the D4 ponces will just have to take another week off and stay in their 5 star Paris hotels all over again in March…tough life..
You’re some dick.
Match has been called off
At least Paddy Wallace got a night away from the Ravens !
ohh look at them 10 feet snow drifts! Not! what a joke of a photo. any picture taken at two inches above ground DISTORTS the perspective. This photo was taken by Les blue in the face to explain away this travesty! 6 nations more like sick nations. Thankfully we have Leinster and the H Cup (run by pros) to look forward to.
That’s not snow, it’s the tarp covering the pitch
Ya numpty!
Je pense…. That your subhead is wrong.
France to win by 15+ pts.
Not tonight they won’t
Who really gives a sh1t… As someone else pointed out it’s not like it was the world cup! It’s a competition with 6 teams.. Boo hoo!!
im sorry but not all rugby fans are upwordly mobile types or d4 nonces. rugby is our nation second sport after gaa and ahead of soccer. meaning there is a wide range of fans.i am from connaught and a student any ireland game i go to i have save for. if i had been there i would be out of pocket and not in a postion to take another weekend off. if people are going to make comment like that then alest have some facts to back it up like this one the novenber test in 2010 were over priced and the majority of people did not go as they could go. so if it is only rich people that go to rugbys games exolan that.
This game should never have been fixed for 9pm and as the week progressed last week having been aware of the weather forecast a decision should have been made to pull the kick off forward by a few hours. Big cock up by the Six Nations Committee and most unfair on the travelling supporters.
Pro Rugby is going soft. What will happen in Aus on the next Lions Tour when a pitch hasnt seen rain for 6 months and not a blade of grass. Call it off, pitch too hard. Men were Men once.
Judgement from Pearson about an event in front of his eyes puts him in the Bertie Ahern category.
I think I’d prefer to see it called off and our team be able to continue the competition instead of having needless injury’s. Obviously it’s unfortunate that it didn’t go ahead but I think it’s unfair to blame any one but the ref as it was his call.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/french-humiliated-by-frozen-pitch-1142578.html article from 1998 on the reason for no undersoil heating. Gasworks/chemicals as someone mentioned above….