France v Scotland... To play or Not to play.. that is the question.

Looks like you aren't going to get a defaulted 28-0 win (which is good).. but would you rather:-


1. Do you want to play the game this weekend, even if its a weakened French team and you risk catching C19 and missing your strong players for the next round.

2. Or would you rather defer 1 week and risk fielding a weakened side.

3. Or defer till later in the year, knowing when done in the past, games end up a damp squibs, especially if it cant/wont alter the 6 Nations table. Also risk not having best players available.


Also, if you are not a Scottish or French fan, tick the box on the poll, so we can do the maths and see the difference between Scottish/French fans and the neutrals.

Probably should be delayed a week with club players made available this week. It would not look great if club sides in England and France were to deny Scotland players (Russell, J Gray, Hogg, Lang, Harris, Steele, Bayliss/CDP) though our depth is not as bad as it could be based on below. Without non-Pro 14/Championship players available, we would have a side that looks like

Sutherland - Turner - Nel (Kebble - Cherry - Berghan)
Cummings - R Gray (Gilchrist/Harley)
Ritchie - M Fagerson - Watson (one of Bradbury/Haining/Harley)

Price - Hastings (Dobie - VDW)
S Johnson - H Jones (Bennett/Taylor)
DVDM - Maitland - Graham

Actually looks better in some positions, Dobie for Steele, Johnson for Lang, Jones forming a partnership with him.

Agree it's sensible to postpone, although I feel like it may have to be later in the year. Everything we've all gone through I'd just rather everyone was safe and we stop taking 10 steps backwards everytime we go forwards, it'd be stupid to throw it all away for what ultimately is, a game.

Precedent set last year. Game postponed till after the 6ns. Maybe end of the season, start of next season or in the AI window

Would love it to go ahead but I can’t see how it’s even a report chance given other examples where footy games have been binned when 1 or 2 players have tested positive. For half a squad to get it and then to possibly sent a whole squad into that risky environment is bonkers.

Can you imagine wee Nicky chucking the toys out the pram if Scotland bring some cases back home? She’d ban rugby in the country for the next 5 years.

I'd say there should be a slight variation on option 1 - play this weekend but without any of the French players who have been in the obviously compromised bubble (i.e. the entire first choice squad). Presumably the French clubs have been doing repeated testing and can guarantee their players are Covid free, so there are enough French players available to fulfil the fixture, even if they are effectively a scratch side.

May not be entirely fair on the French, but it would be much more unfair to rearrange for a date when the Scotland side would be weakened because of club commitments (especially to French clubs...)

dummy_half wrote:I'd say there should be a slight variation on option 1 - play this weekend but without any of the French players who have been in the obviously compromised bubble (i.e. the entire first choice squad). Presumably the French clubs have been doing repeated testing and can guarantee their players are Covid free, so there are enough French players available to fulfil the fixture, even if they are effectively a scratch side.

May not be entirely fair on the French, but it would be much more unfair to rearrange for a date when the Scotland side would be weakened because of club commitments (especially to French clubs...)

How would that be different. So make the French teams pick their "non first squad" selections or make Scotland pick a team which is still from the "first squad", but maybe not first choice XV.. I think that is just as, if not more, unfair.

If it doesn't go ahead this weekend, will Scottish players be released back to Glasgow & Edinburgh?

Defer until later in the year.

Simply because doing it next weekend is unfair on EP and French clubs who expect their star players back for them in the league. Unfair on the players who want to play International Rugby but not let down their club and fans. Unfair on SRU who want to have access to their full squad. Allows players injured to recover and be available for the fixture later in the year. Allows French players to recover from covid and be available later in the year.

The match goes ahead.

There is no way on earth the PRL will allow the scots players to be released for next week.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/56181534

Its on... so guess that makes Scotland favourites..

This is silly it's just going to be cancelled closer to the time. It's literally a deja vu of last year Vs wales

No9 wrote:

dummy_half wrote:I'd say there should be a slight variation on option 1 - play this weekend but without any of the French players who have been in the obviously compromised bubble (i.e. the entire first choice squad). Presumably the French clubs have been doing repeated testing and can guarantee their players are Covid free, so there are enough French players available to fulfil the fixture, even if they are effectively a scratch side.

May not be entirely fair on the French, but it would be much more unfair to rearrange for a date when the Scotland side would be weakened because of club commitments (especially to French clubs...)

How would that be different. So make the French teams pick their "non first squad" selections or make Scotland pick a team which is still from the "first squad", but maybe not first choice XV.. I think that is just as, if not more, unfair.

Because ultimately it is the French that would potentially be causing the postponement. Unlike in a club game (where there is clearly a limit on playing resources), they do still have access to sufficient fit and available players from outside the selected squad's bubble to put out a team, even if they might not have benefitted from much training time. Anyway, game is on, so this is somewhat moot.

No9 wrote:https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/56181534

Its on... so guess that makes Scotland favourites..

Lol, playing against France, in Paris. They could select 15 of their local grannies and they'd still rightly be favourites, particularly after our spectacular but predictable failure to back up a big win in our last outing.

I am so glad it is going ahead this week end and it as not been put off or delayed to be played another day.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/56181534

Looks highly likely to be off again...

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12508/12230246/six-nations-french-sports-minister-threatens-france-withdrawal-over-covid-19-outbreak

Looks like Laporte tried to bury his head in the sand & the French Sports Minister believes there was a breach of COVID-19 protocol rules in Rome.
He is now demanding a proper investigation with the threat of pulling France out of 6Ns.
This could all end badly.

What a world we live in where a trip to get waffles is treated like a criminal offence. The sooner normality returns and the madness ends the better.

NeilyBroon wrote:What a world we live in where a trip to get waffles is treated like a criminal offence. The sooner normality returns and the madness ends the better.

It’s all a mess no doubt.

It’s not illegal for me to go get waffles (even though there is a stay at home order on). It’s classed as “essential” as it’s food.

The problem with this case is that sports have been given an exemption to various rules such as 2m and meeting more than one person outside to allow close contact sports to continue. To do this they need to stick to their protective bubbles and when that’s breeched it makes the bubble worthless and the exemption becomes invalid.

Now is when the lawyers come out. If France are pulled from the championship by their own government then you’d think their previous results would be invalidated and this blows the whole competition wide open. It would no matter which way you cut it ruin the championship and severely taint the title.

I’m still hoping future games can be played, maybe even in the summer, but it’s looking more and more likely that’s some form of penalty needs to be applied to France for messing about. Fine the coach? Ban the team from AI games this year?

They’ve been targeting a home World Cup win and have been building to that. This carry on will seriously dent these preparations so they’ve already punished themselves a fair whack

I've just heard, that if the remaining games play out, so that this game cannot impact the final table, then due to the congested schedule, the game will just be chalked up as cancelled.

Not done the maths to support it, but the clearest option is if Wales win the Slam.

I guess it makes sense, if its not going to change the end result.

No9 wrote:I've just heard, that if the remaining games play out, so that this game cannot impact the final table, then due to the congested schedule, the game will just be chalked up as cancelled.

Not done the maths to support it, but the clearest option is if Wales win the Slam.

I guess it makes sense, if its not going to change the end result.

Quite possible.

Wales don’t even need to win the slam to win it assuming they get a BP win over Italy. Even if they don’t then as France didn’t get a BP over Ireland it makes Wales the favourites.

Right now Wales are on 14, France on 9

Lets give Wales 5 points for beating Italy and we'll give France 5 points for beating England (just giving them the 5 points for argument’s sake England fans, don’t worry)

Last weekend you have Wales on 19 and France on 14 (with a game in hand)

If Wales lose that game by less than 7 points they are on 20 with France (giving them a 5 pointer against Scotland for argument’s sake again) only on 19. Likewise if Wales score 4 tries against France then it's still championship over.

The issue that we're going to face is that Scotland could be looking at a 3rd or even 2nd place finish if they can beat France which will have financial outcomes let alone rugby outcomes. We've seen what our chief lawyer employer Dodson did when there was a typhoon rolling around. If this is the only game of the 6ns cancelled guess what he's going to do!!!

There will be more twists in this to come yet. If the game is rearranged for just after the championship was meant to end and Scotland can’t get access to all their players (those in England for example) then the SRU could turn round and say no dice. They could argue that the game needs to be played just as the UK domestic leagues wrap up and French club rugby is still going on meaning France may not have access to all their players but it was ultimately France’s fault the game got binned when it was scheduled so tough monkey?

I can see this game being played during the AI window so some poor touring side like Japan may get bumped to have this game played.

Or France are tipped out this year’s championship and all previous games invalidated. Or even worse from a welsh point of view, the whole tournament is declared null and void!