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
19.54 – 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.
19.57 – It looks very much like this one is off, folks. Pitch unplayable due to freezing conditions.
20.07 – 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?
20.18 – 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.”
20.30 – 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.
20.35 – 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.
Open thread: how do you think Ireland will do in Paris tonight?
Memory lane: five classic clashes with the French
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