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Opinion

Is it time to cancel Wales v Scotland?

By NationCymru
Picture by Malcolm Murdoch (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Ifan Morgan Jones

As the Welsh rugby squad was announced this morning there was a strange feeling of unreality to the whole thing, as life seemed to continue as normal in this one instance where everywhere else it is grinding to a halt.

The Welsh Government will of course be acting on the advice of medical experts. Nevertheless, the contrast between Ireland announcing today that they are going to be shutting down schools, universities and even childcare providers and Wales not even cancelling a rugby match seems pretty stark.

The Scottish Government has also just announced that they’re banning gatherings of over only 500 people from Monday, which raises the question of whether the game would go ahead if it was being played in Edinburgh.

Italy postponed their own rugby matches back on 26 February when their outbreak was at a similar level of development as ours is now, as in hindsight that decision has been vindicated.

It leaves Wales v Scotland – a match to decide on fifth place in the tournament - as the only game in the Six Nations going ahead this weekend, after the Italy v England and Ireland v France matches to decide the winner of the tournament were both postponed.

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Elderly

It is not so much 75,000 rugby fans gathering at the open-air national stadium that is worrying, but the number of fans who will be packed together on public transport and public houses before and after the match.

Perhaps not a single one of them will have coronavirus. But given that fans will travel to Cardiff from all over Wales and beyond it seems to be an event almost designed to ensure the efficient spread of the virus throughout the country.

The Welsh Government confirmed yesterday that at least one person who had tested positive for coronavirus had no known contact with anyone else with the virus.

That is confirmation that there are cases out there already that are yet to have been picked up on.

The coronavirus will of course not have a big health impact on everyone who catches it. It mostly impacts the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.

The main danger seems to be that hospitals become overwhelmed with a high number of cases in a short period of time and can’t care for everyone.

Unfortunately, Wales does not seem best placed to weather such an eventuality. Yesterday an expert warned that Wales was “uniquely at risk” due to a shortage of critical care beds.

We also have an older population, with a higher % of our population than England and Scotland in the 60+ age bracket which has been hit hardest by the coronavirus so far.

Balance

It’s clear now that the coronavirus cannot be stopped – it can only be slowed down so that the NHS is not overwhelmed all at once.

The Welsh Government will be keen to ‘flatten the curve’ to avoid that happening, but not so much that the outbreak goes on indefinitely and into next winter when capacity will be even more scarce.

Getting that balance right between allowing the slow spread of the virus and letting it overwhelm the NHS won’t be easy.

However looking at the experience of other countries who are dealing with a higher number of cases, not going ahead with a gathering of 75,000 people in our nation’s capital looks like a prudent thing to do.

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18 comments

Huw Davies

WRU has an incurable addiction to its revenue stream. Prospect of killing a few fans or at least accelerating the spread of a virus is a remote secondary consideration.

Reply
Roger

The possible death or at the least serious illness of elderly people like myself, is secondary to the importance of Rugby in Wales.

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Huw J Davies

Roger, everything is secondary to the importance of rugby in Wales. That's why you get news headlines like Ex rugby player's Dog bites Postman. I exaggerate but not by a huge amount. The alternate would be 'Nasty Postman Kicks ex Rugby Player's Dog' And yes I'm another Huw Davies but now add my middle initial to try to avoid confusion. Of course, if you've ever played rugby you could be the 'Ex Rugby Player dies of Covid-19' headline!

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Alastair Fleck

We have tickets and are debating whether or not to attend the match. It's the prospect of being crammed in over crowded trains for a couple of hours getting to and from the match that is causing the most concern, not being in the stadium itself. However, the revenue stream for the WRU is not really the issue. Most, if not all, of the tickets have been sold already and there are no refunds if the game is cancelled. All of the revenue will go straight to the WRU's bottom line, without much of the associated costs.

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Leigh Richards

The response of 6 nations organisers to this grave public health crisis has been nothing short of shambolic ie. doing everything they can to avoid doing the inevitable - cancelling this year's tournament.

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Rob

Couldn't the Scottish Government intervene and call it off? The SRU do come under their jurisdiction

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Leigh Richards

As Adam Price rightly says "the safety of citizens must be put before everything else" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-51853674

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Jenny Howell

You are absolutely right. I have a friend who works in a pub close to the stadium and she is dreading Saturday. It is keeping her awake at night. It should be cancelled whatever the WRU think.

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Geraint Jones ???????

It's definitely time to cancel the game. The Welsh Government is quite literally playing with people's lives if it allows it to go ahead.

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Penysgafn

Not worth the risk. Much better to have a Super Saturday in the autumn

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Kerry Davies

You could be English you know. Because of our postcode we get served by Capita England and they spent all day on the phone telling her indoors she had to attend a PIP assessment in Hereford. Now that's OK but her immune system is done and her own GP won't let her into his waiting room. The last time she caught a cold she spent ten days in ICU in Nevill Hall. They are making no allowances for Covid and there will be dozens of victims losing their PIP or being infected and running the risk of death. These are the most vulnerable of the at risk groups and they want them to un-isolate. For most reasonably fit rugby fans under 60 the only risk is that they will get it, not even know they have it and recover without knowing they had it. If you are over 60, have COPD or are diabetic and suchlike, give your tickets to a foodbank. Ymlaen! Oh and threats of violence have resulted in a home visit to assess how much more PIP she needs.

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Charles L. Gallagher

Apart from the fact that Scotland v Wales be it at the Arms Park (it will always be the Arms Park to me) or Murrayfield is more of a pilgrimage and many Scottish fans will already be in Cardiff enjoying the legendary hospitality of the Welsh. As for the game, if it's played, then the 'roof' should remain OPEN despite the weather.

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Rob

Funny how the rugby is going ahead yet the Labour Leadership contest gets cancelled. The left wing of the Labour party will do anything to keep Corbyn as their leader.

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Gisella A.

(sorry for the lentgh but hearing that a Rugby match is still set to go on tomorrow in Cardiff, more than 70.000 people from all over UK coming over and roaming around the city I really have to ask: why, why why, are you doing this? Since I've started learning Welsh, I've been reading of how much people there are proud of their Nation, want (and deserve, I think) more recognition and power to do what's best for them instead of having decisions imposed from outside.And when you've got the chance to choose...you take high risks for the entire population for a Rugby match? I'm at loss here.  Can anyone there explain me and your own country why? Until then, let me just tell you something: I live in Italy - where you can certainly guess something went wrong in the way we handled the situation - since we're the most affected country after China (despite having a population of about 60 million more or less like the UK, not over 1 billion), and the main source of infection of cases found around Europe.   We all took it lightly in the beginning, including institutions. Very few people show serious symptoms, no big deal. Everybody looking perfectly healthy kept on doing their usual life and meeting other people. What nobody knew by then, is that a lot of then were positive to the virus and actually spreading it around at supersonic speed, being completely unaware of it.  About one week after first COVID-19 case was detected in Italy, main concern was economic losses and totally seemed to make sense. This virus didn't seem so different from a flu. A campaign called #milanononsiferma ("Milan doesn't stop") was launched and praised by the local government. It was meant to prevent people to panic and lock themselves home, therefore damaging thousands of shops, bars and restaurants in the zone.  Other areas like where I live, just about 100 miles away, blocked most events right away - even though only ONE case had been identified by then in this area. To be honest, at the time we were all quite annoyed, and complaining of how this would negatively affect so many big and especially small activities.  A third area, much closer to Milan, with a higher number of was declared "red zone": all activities were closed (except those related to basic necessities), and nobody allowed to go anywhere without a paper stating they had valid reasons to do so.  Police blocking anyone trying to access or go out of the area.  Less than two weeks later,  the WHOLE COUNTRY was put in lockdown, like the first "red zone". ALL events cancelled, all restaurants and bars and most other activities and shops closed. Tourism zeroed. Nobody allowed in or out of the Country. We can hardly get out of our homes without risking being arrested. In the whole nation. Besides we're counting over 15000 people infected, over 1000 deaths, Health Service close to collapsing (not only older and already ill people may need medical assistance - by the way, in case you're planning to wipe out the weakest part of the population), few resources left to deal other illnesses or accidents (which may occur to anyone, including babies, kids and perfectly healthy adults). Most of these cases in Lombardia region, where Milano is. There are several reasons for this, but can imagine that keeping on partying while you don't have the slightest idea of how many people are currently infected was probably not a very wise thing to do. In my Province, Turin, a little more measures were taken early and we're doing a bit better, although still seeing numbers getting and higher every day.  There's only one area where numbers skyrocketed but now are already going down, and that's the in first "red zone". They stopped everything as fast as possible, and already seeing results.  Why don't you just the least risks possible now, before things get worse? Even if there was just a 1% chance that things get really bad why not catching this opportunity while you can? I love Wales and care about many people who live there I don't want it to go through the same things we're going through.  Cymer ofal Gisella

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Llyn

The WRU will not cancel unless pushed. The reality is Welsh Rugby is reliant on international matches to fund the game in Wales and with only one home game in the autumn and one home game so far this year they need the game to go ahead. If it doesn't go ahead it won't be long before the WRU starts to use emotional blackmail with the Welsh Gov to get taxpayers to bail them out of their financial problems.

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Huw Davies

Masters of the hand wringing begging technique. The game is professional at the top level and should be able to stand on its own 2 feet by building up reserves. The community game is a totally different "kettle of fish" and should, where necessary, be given some support to recover especially as it was also hit badly by the season's floods, along with other community sports.

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David

Football has been cancelled in England until at least April 4th. All golf tournaments worldwide have been postponed. The WRU administrators only believe in MONEY not the lives and well being of people living in Wales.

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W lewis

There is an answer - don’t go to the game. Just because it is not being cancelled, show them where it hurts, their tills.

Reply

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Replying to Kerry Davies Cancel

You could be English you know. Because of our postcode we get served by Capita England and they spent all day on the phone telling her indoors she had to attend a PIP assessment in Hereford. Now that's OK but her immune system is done and h...

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