Six Nations still in fixture dilemma
March 22, 2001

The Six Nations Committee has reaffirmed its determination to complete this season's championship despite the foot-and-mouth livestock disease outbreak in Britain playing havoc with the fixture schedule.

In a statement issued after a telephone conference call meeting Thursday the Committee said there was no threat to either the England v France match at Twickenham on Saturday, April 7th and the Italy v Wales encounter 24 hours later in Rome.

"The Committee reaffirmed that the Championship would be completed in its entirety," said the statement, although the strength of the outbreak could mean that fixtures are not completed until next season, after the Lions tour of Australia this summer.

Three postponed matches have provisionally been rearranged - Wales v
Ireland (April 29), Ireland v England (May 5) and Scotland v Ireland (May 12). But Irish rugby chiefs are following their government's advice not to resume sporting contacts with Britain until 30 days after the last reported case of foot-and-mouth in Britain.

With new cases being confirmed daily the prospects for the Wales v Ireland match going ahead on April 29 look close to non-existent, especially as an incident of the disease have now been confirmed in Ireland as well as France.
The statement made no mention of these previously arranged alternative dates and simply said: "A further meeting of the Committee will be held on April 1 to discuss the arrangements for the following matches: Wales v Ireland, Ireland, England, Scotland v Ireland.
No further statement will be made until after the April 1 meeting."

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