The Six Nations have issued a statement backing the decision to call off Saturday week’s game against Italy.
The tournament organisers also confirmed that the remaining five matches in the championship, including Italy’s home match against England in Rome, are currently to go ahead as scheduled.
Their statement read: “Six Nations notes the formal instruction provided to the IRFU today by the Irish National Public Health Emergency team, which states that the upcoming series of Championship matches between Ireland and Italy over the weekend of 6/8 March should not proceed.
Ireland v Italy Six Nations game in Dublin postponed due to coronavirus concernshttps://t.co/4N3KGHDmBe
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) February 26, 2020
“We are fully supportive of any preventative measures taken in the interests of overall Public Health in relation to the Coronavirus and we will respect instructions provided by Government authorities and health organisations. Six Nations also continues to liaise with its medical advisory group.
“We will be holding further discussions with all six Unions with respect to the rescheduling options for all the affected games, factoring in the current dynamic situation.
“All other matches are currently scheduled to go ahead as normal. We will continue to monitor the situation very closely with all Unions and the respective Government authorities and health organisations.”
The Team Voted The Greatest Six Nations XV Of All Time
With the 2020 Six Nations in full swing, we wanted to know what you think the best-ever combined XV.
And after 30,000 votes, here is the team fans selected. There are one or two surprise inclusions.
Fullback: JASON ROBINSON (England) – 10,758 votes
Winger: SHANE WILLIAMS (Wales) – 12,374
Centre: Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland) – 21,392
Centre: Will Greenwood (England) – 10,697
Greenwood followed his father Dick into an England shirt. While his father was a prickly back row player, the younger Greenwood was one of the finest centres to grace the England midfield.