Scotland's Six Nations clash with France postponed

Scotland’s Six Nations Rugby match against France has been postponed after a coronavirus outbreak in the French camp.

The whole team and backroom staff have been forced into isolation following the outbreak.

The game, which was due to take place on Sunday, will now be rescheduled for a later date.

Scottish Rugby confirmed the news on Twitter.

Organisers ordered daily testing before announcing on Wednesday that this weekend’s Stade de France clash would go ahead following a full sweep of negatives results.

But less than 24 hours later they have been forced to shelve the Saint-Denis showdown, with the entire Les Bleus squad placed into quarantine after the French Rugby Federation reported an 11th player had contracted the virus.

The news will come as a major blow to Gregor Townsend’s Scots, who fear they will be without 10 of their biggest stars if the game is moved to a date outside of the international window.

The Six Nations said in a statement: “The Six Nations Testing Oversight Group met today to review the situation in the French camp.

“They unanimously recommended the postponement of the France v Scotland match. This will be ratified later today by the Six Nations council.

“We will be working on the rescheduling of this fixture and will communicate the date in due course.”

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend accepted the call but made it clear that the rescheduled game shuold not see his side disadvantaged in any way.

He said: “While we fully accept the decision of the Testing Oversight Group to recommend postponing our match against France on medical grounds, it is disappointing not to be able to play this fixture on Sunday.

“We have had a good week with our players who were focused and ready to represent their country in Paris and continue our progress in this year’s Guinness Six Nations.

“Throughout this tournament, and the previous Autumn Nations Cup, we have worked hard to maintain strict Covid protocols which have enabled us to select our strongest possible teams for these important international fixtures.

“We will wait to see what options are available to play this match against France, but it remains our position that we want to have all our eligible players available to us for that fixture, so we can compete to the level we would have done this weekend.

“We wish all the French players and staff affected by Covid well in their recovery and look forward to playing them at a future date.”