Irish rugby coach Warren Gatland has said he is disappointed but not surprised by this evening's decision to postpone Ireland's Six Nations matches until the start of next season. "We had a meeting last week and had prepared for this decision," revealed Gatland tonight. "The whole objective of this year was to build on a pretty good Six Nations of last year. We wanted to see if we could put two good Six Nations back to back and felt we were doing that," he added.
"We were pretty confident that we would have won the Wales game and it would have been brilliant going into the England match with three wins under our belt. England are probably one of the best teams in the world and it would have been nice to put ourselves against the best and see what sort of progress the team has made," said Gatland.
"The Irish Rugby Football Union share in the decision that has been made, and it is absolutely understandable given the circumstances in which it has been taken," added IRFU spokesman John Redmond.
The organisers of this year's Six Nations tournament decided to postpone all matches involving Ireland until next season following advice from government officials. However, England v France and Italy v Wales will go ahead as planned on the weekend of April 7-8. Because the Government recently stipulated that no Irish sporting fixtures should take place against any British team until at least 30 days have passed since the last known case of foot and mouth is recorded, the Six Nations organisers had no choice other than to postpone Ireland's games until the start of next season, as outbreaks of the disease are still on the increase in Britain.
A statement from the Six Nations Committee read: "A meeting of the Six Nations Committee was held this evening to discuss the current status of the foot and mouth epidemic and its effect on the Lloyds TSB Six Nations Championship. After reviewing the current position and the likely prognosis for the foreseeable future it has been unanimously decided that the following matches will be postponed until the commencement of next season: Wales v Ireland, Ireland v England and Scotland v Ireland. There will now be consultation with unions and with commercial partners on possible alternative dates before firm dates are set. Further dialogue within the Six Nations Committee will take place in the near future." (PA)
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
