Six Nations gets green light to continue - for now

Six Nations officials have declared that the show will go on.

For now, anyway.

Representatives of the six countries were in Paris for a pre-planned World Rugby event on Monday but took the time to discuss the current situation with the coronavirus and any possible rescheduling options that may be required in light of the virus' spread.

Ireland's meeting with Italy this Saturday has already fallen foul of the situation, as have the Womens and U20s games that were due to be played in Donnybrook and Cork respectively, but organisers have refrained from suggesting any likely dates for those games to be played down the line.

The only decision announced from the French capital was that the remainder of the Six Nations will go ahead as planned, although this was followed by the rather significant rider that it really won't be their call if the health situation deteriorates.

“As it stands today, based on the latest information, all Six Nations matches currently scheduled are set to go ahead,” said a statement after the discussions.

“Six Nations is in contact with FIR [Italian union] and RFU [English union] regarding the possibility of relocating [this weekend's] Women’s and U20 Italy vs England matches to another Italian location and we will make a further announcement on this in due course.

“However, the Italy vs England Senior Men’s match in Rome is planned to go ahead as scheduled.

“Six Nations intends to complete all 15 games across all three championships when time allows but we will refrain from making any rescheduling announcements for the time being while we keep assessing the situation.”

Numerous Serie A football games have been among the sporting events already affected in Italy while neighbours Switzerland have called a full halt to its professional leagues for now.

In all, over a dozen different sports have had events postponed or cancelled across the same number of countries with most of these occurring in Asia. The Six Nations have stated again that the final decisions on games will rest with the respective governments.

France have already announced a ban on indoor events involving more than 5,000 people and the European Centre for Disease Prevention has increased its risk assessment for the continent after the numbers affected in Italy doubled in the space of just two days.