[caption id="attachment_69760" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="French fan Alex Michel and Irish fan Garrett Killeen pose against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower. "]
IRISH rugby fans are still scratching their heads after the farcial circumstances which saw last Saturday night's Six Nations encounter against France in Paris called off shortly before the kick-off.
There was really no excuse for a situation that saw many Irish supporters unnecessarily travel over for the game. The Stade de France encounter could and should have been postponed earlier in the week.
Instead, the organizers ignored the freezing temperatures, preferring to wait until the last moment in the hope that the situation would be okay. But sections of the pitch were always likely to freeze, making conditions dangerous for players.
The game has been refixed for Sunday, March 4 at 3 p.m. That news comes as a disappointment to the Irish Rugby Football Union who were hoping that the game would he rescheduled for March 3, a full week before the home game against Scotland. On a more positive note, the French Rugby Federation has agreed to reimburse the cost of tickets for Irish supporters who are unable to
travel to Paris for the rescheduled game.
Bizarrely, there is no under-soil heating at the modern 80,000-capacity venue. So, to have a match at nine o'clock at night in sub-zero temperatures made no sense. The reason presumably was to suit the needs of French television. Supporters may also ask why the pitch covering was removed two hours before the match.
In the end, English referee Dave Pearson had little option but to call the game off. Significantly, both coaches Ireland's Declan Kidney and Philippe Saint-Andre from France agreed with the decision. Somehow though it took officials another 15 minutes to inform the crowd. Quite understandably, they were far from happy. You would have to sympathize in particular with the Irish fans who had forked out a lot of money to travel to Paris. Apparently, tickets will be valid for the rearranged fixture but many Irish fans will not have the money to travel.
One option was to bring the game forward to three o'clock in the afternoon last Saturday when temperatures would not have been as low but this was overlooked. The reason given was that it would have been short notice for fans.
Another possible reason is that it would have clashed with England's game against Italy in Rome. Either way, it was a shambolic situation.
Referee Pearson was, of course, the touch judge who decided that Welsh forward Bradley Davies should only get a yellow card instead of a red for his spear tackle on Ireland's Donnacha Ryan the previous weekend. Given that Davies was cited and has now been suspended for the entire championship, he got that decision badly wrong.
But there's no point in heaping the blame on him for this episode. It goes a lot deeper with television scheduling being the main culprit.
The only sensible thing to happen over the past week was the decision to clear Irish flanker Stephen Ferris for his alleged spear tackle at the end of the Ireland-Wales match. In reality, it was never a spear tackle and should not even have resulted in the match-winning penalty for Wales.
Meanwhile, Ireland did play and win an international rugby match in France over the weekend, but it was at Under 20 level. They beat the French 13-12 in Grenoble on Saturday afternoon to make it two out of two in the Under 20 Six Nations Championship. Previously, they had overcome Wales at home.
