Bouscatel blasts IRB and Six Nations organisers

Toulouse president Rene Bouscatel has waded into the row over the re-scheduled Six Nations game between France and Ireland with a withering attack on rugby union’s organising bodies, the IRB and the Six Nations organising committee.

The re-scheduled match is fixed for Sunday, March 4, but this conflicts with a round of Top 14 action due to be played on the Friday and Saturday, making it the 11th time this season an international match has clashed with a Top 14 weekend. Instead the French clubs, led by Ligue National de Rugby president Pierre Yves Revol, wanted the game moved to the end of the season but this was rejected by the Six Nations organising committee, leaving Bouscatel fuming with the decision.

“The way these international bodies function, it’s a bit surreal,” said Bouscatel. “They respect nothing, they just impose.