WRU chairman defends Wales v Scotland U-turn

Colin Newboult

WRU Chairman Gareth Davies during the press conference at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff.

Welsh Rugby Union chairman Gareth Davies has explained how the nationwide postponement of football fixtures prompted a U-turn on Wales’ Six Nations clash against Scotland.

The WRU insisted on Friday morning that Saturday’s game in Cardiff would be played before a 74,500-capacity Principality Stadium crowd despite the coronavirus outbreak.

But less than five hours later, the WRU called the game off with Davies saying that the governing body had found themselves “probably the lightning rod for the virus, and for the publicity”.

“It’s been a tough week,” said Davies, who told BBC Radio Wales that the WRU had given the go-ahead to the game being played at an emergency board meeting on Thursday night.

“We obviously followed the advice of the central government, Welsh government in terms of the scientific and medical evidence and that was the case until last night (Thursday) when we met to consider everything.

“We still thought that bearing in mind the advice that was the way to go.

“The Premier League, for example, were carrying on but that had changed for maybe obvious reasons.

“The English Football League went on a similar course, as did the Celtic-Rangers game, so I think we found ourselves probably the lightning rod for the virus and for the publicity.

“We spoke to government this morning who totally understood our position.”

An earlier WRU statement, announcing the postponement of the fixture, said: “Every effort has been made to stage this game” and that the governing body “appreciates that individuals will have been inconvenienced”.

The WRU added that further announcements with respect to rescheduling the fixture would be made “in the coming days”.

It becomes the fourth game to be postponed in this season’s Six Nations.

Ireland’s games against Italy and France had already been called off, in addition to England’s appointment with Italy in Rome.

No dates for rearranged games have yet been announced, although late October is thought to be an option.

 

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