6 Nations Match Postponed

[Gardian]

Disappointing that the match was called off, but understandable.  Though, as Keith Wood said (in so many words) "This was predictable a few days ago".

I feel very sorry for the '000's of people from Ireland and (mostly) southern France who paid (say) €200 each just to get there, before even the price of their ticket. It would be nice if the IRB paid out some form of compensation, but pigs might fly!!

 

[NormanH]

But the important one was won by England [6]

[Bob T]

[quote user="NormanH"]But the important one was won by England [6]

[/quote]

In your opinion!

[pachapapa]

I was, of course, watching the Third place play-off in Africa Cup between Mali & Ghana so only caught up with the postponement in the news.

But it does seem a monumental farce; the ENGLISH umpire apparently inspected the pitch on friday,  repeated the process during saturday with a declaration 2 HOURS before the game that it was OK....then 5 MINUTES before the start after warm up by the players decided it was too dangerous to play.

"

En cause, donc, la versatilité du comité des VI Nations et surtout de Dave Pearson, qui avait jugé le terrain comme praticable vendredi soir, puis deux heures avant le coup d’envoi. «Ce match était jouable jusqu’à 21 heures ce soir», ironise même Jacques Laurans, membre élu du comité directeur de la FFR, venu avec Pierre Camou en conférence de presse.

The french football First Division games had been brought forward to the afternoon an obvious decision under the circumstances. On the french rugby side in conjunction with the opinion of a meteoroligist an attempt to play the game at 3 in the afternoon was proposed.

The France 2 TV channel agreed and supported the proposed change to an earlier afternoon time.

For reasons that are in the circumstances of TWO WEEKS of sub-zero temperatures and more than 50 french departments on "grand froid" alert are for an association football follower really quite amusing.

"

Pourquoi ne pas avoir avancé la rencontre dans l'après-midi?

Comme le football l'a fait pour ses matchs de Ligue 1, cette rencontre entre la France et l'Irlande aurait pu être avancée dans l'après-midi pour éviter au maximum le risque de terrain gelé. Mais ceci était impossible, même si France2 a assuré avoir proposé de jouer la rencontre à 15 heures, ce que le comité des VI Nations a refusé. Pierre Camou, président de la FFR, c'est avant tout une question de respect envers "Il n’y a pas qu’à Paris qu'il y a des supporters, et je pense à ceux qui sont venus de Navarre pour voir un spectacle avec un contrat, un billet stipulant une heure précise." 

[Cendrillon]

[8-)]Timing the match for 21.00 was stupid IMO. I too pity the poor spectators who had invested a lot of time and money to be there.

As you have all said, given the bitter cold of recent weeks surely the match start time could have been rescheduled or the decision to postpone, taken a day or two sooner.

edit:

A futher thought, I have not heard or any rioting after the announcement from the fans. If this had been a football crowd then the behaviour following this decision might have been a different story.

[Mr Ice-ni]

As usual a decision taken with not a care for the paying spectators. A very cold evening had been forecast for days yet wait until almost the last minute before calling off the match and naturally tell the tv peeps before informing those in the stadium.

John

[powerdesal]

An absolute farce without doubt but I don't think this can be laid entirely at the door of the English referee (not umpire), I imagine there was a considerable amount of discussion between the various parties, or at least there seemed to be on the pitch immediately before the planned kick-off time.

The ultimate decision is of course by the referee but ...........

It was a very poor plan in the first place to have a late night match in the present conditions. The cancellation decision should have been made at least three days ago, based on weather at the time and future forecasts.

There is / was no comparison with the Italy game where the pitch was actually wet, contrary to the comments by a French official.

ps, I don't rate Englands chances against either France or Wales this year.

[pitway]

Was this Stade de France? Surly, if it was, a national stadium like that has under soil heating to prevent such a freeze, or perhaps I am just missing something as a complete non sporty plonker! but a real bummer for the spectators and pretty inexcusable if there was any doubt a few days ago, it's not as though this wasn't forecast

[Polremy]

What is the point of paying megaeuros for weather forecasting if nobody pays any attention to it?

[Gardian]

[quote user="pitway"]Was this Stade de France? Surly, if it was, a national stadium like that has under soil heating to prevent such a freeze, [/quote]

Bizarrely, it hasn't.

With gate receipts of (say) £5m for each of 2-3 International matches per season, to say nothing of major club games (Stade are playing Toulon there next weekend to a sell-out crowd), it smacks of criminal penny-pinching. 

[DraytonBoy]

The stadium is built on the site of an old gasworks and under soil heating was not considered safe.

[Gardian]

Yes, I read something about that although not with the detail you've provided.

However, you find yourself wondering how impossible it would have been to address that problem in a stadium built a decade or so ago?

Anyway ......... it's done now. No surprise now (although it was then) to have read a few months ago that the French RU were looking to have a new stadium built.   

[DraytonBoy]

Just to rub it in for those that turned up Saturday night it was announced yesterday that if they can't make the re-arranged game they will not get their money back.