Six Nations give France v Scotland the go ahead

A Covid-19 outbreak in the France squad put the fixture in doubt.

STV News

24th Feb 2021

Scotland’s Six Nations clash with France on Sunday will go ahead as planned in Paris, tournament organisers have announced.

The Stade de France showdown had been thrown into major doubt following a Covid-19 outbreak in Les Bleus squad.

But after a fresh round of negative test results, France have now been given the go ahead to host Gregor Townsend’s squad.

The Six Nations said in a statement: “Further to a meeting of the Six Nations Testing Oversight Group (TOG) this morning to review the latest tests results of the French Squad, the Six Nations confirm the plans to stage the France v Scotland match as originally scheduled this coming Sunday.

“We continue to monitor the situation very closely and are in regular contact with both unions.”

The news will come as a relief to the Scottish Rugby Union, who feared they would be forced to do without 10 of Townsend’s top stars if the game was postponed until next week.

France’s outbreak has forced a number of their top stars into quarantine, including star scrum-half and 2020 player of the championship Antoine Dupont and captain Charles Ollivon.

But The French Rugby Federation confirmed the latest round of tests has returned no further positive cases.

The FFR said in a statement: “Following the RT-PCR tests carried out yesterday, Tuesday February 23, no new positive cases for Covid-19 have been identified.

“Tests will continue to be carried out daily until the France-Scotland meeting this Sunday.”