Cold comfort for Ireland

REGRETS?

John Feehan expressed quite a few yesterday evening but an outright apology was conspicuous by its absence at Six Nations HQ in Dublin as the competition’s chief executive finally went public on last Saturday’s Paris debacle.

The Irishman did at least describe the failure to stage last weekend’s game between France and Ireland as deeply disturbing and added that the tournament organisers “felt “for everyone who was discommoded, both Irish and French.”

That will provide little comfort for those punters left shivering in ignorance in the Stade de France, two teams that must now play four games in as many weeks and two unions, neither of which is happy with the rearranged date of Sunday March 4, with a 3pm kick-off.

No sooner was the hastily-arranged press conference finished in Ballsbridge than a statement was dropping in newsroom mail boxes expressing the IRFU’s “disappointment” at a decision that leaves them just six days before the next fixture at home to Scotland.

Feehan expressed sympathy for that view and attempted to soften the blow by confirming that the Irish team and officials will be excused from the habitual post-match functions and thus be able to return home on the night of the re-arranged game for a change.

Declan Kidney will be more concerned with the physical toll on his players from here on in and, with the pool of talent so much smaller here than in France, there is no debating which side is liable to suffer more in the weeks ahead.

The IRFU had asked for the postponed game to be played on Saturday March 3, the FFR had canvassed for a date in September while the Top 14 clubs had called for early June so that their own domestic fixtures on the first weekend of March would be unaffected.

When all was said and done however, officials were duty-bound under their own regulations to utilise one of the two ‘free’ weekends in February or March and a majority of the Six Nations Council decided that the Sunday of the latter was ultimately the least of a great many evils.

“The reason we are having the game on the Sunday is that all the club fixtures in France are on the Saturday except one. To reorganise ten other games would be far more difficult,” said Feehan. “The French clubs have already sold tickets for those games. They have sold TV rights and we would be going head to head with them which would not be right for the championship. So, we have decided that Sunday is the more viable option.”

At least some lessons have been learned.

“We are going to have to reconsider our procedures,” Feehan accepted. “The way the Six Nations has been organised to date is that each union, once it knows a time, place and venue for the game, is effectively responsible for staging that game.

“I suppose we are going to have to look at the procedures we have for calling it off, for want of a better way of putting it. As the rules currently stand, the Six Nations office itself cannot call off a game.

“It can only be called off by the whole Council or changed. It can be postponed, mind you, by two other means. It can be postponed by the host union or it can be postponed by the referee on the match which in this instance it was.”

It seems incredible to use the word ‘lucky’ in all this but the fact is that the situation would have been much worse if this had happened later in the tournament as there would be no free weekend to fall back on.

Another point to consider, Feehan admitted.

As it is, any tweaks to tournament rules and regulations will probably go unnoticed by the general punter and the teams themselves as Feehan declared an intention to continue with night games which he pointed out were par for the course in rugby these days.

It was also confirmed that French coach Philippe Saint-Andre should be able to call on his full squad of players for the rematch as, despite the full programme that weekend, the Top 14 clubs are duty-bound to release their players to the national squad.