Italy-England disturbed by the coronavirus. - Lindsey Parnaby / AFP

The match of the Italy-England VI Nations Tournament, scheduled for Rome on March 14, has been postponed to a date yet to be determined due to the epidemic of new coronavirus, organizers announced on Thursday.

"The tournament takes note of the decree published by the Italian government on March 4" and decided "to postpone the three games between Italy and England (men, women and under 20) which were to take place the weekend end of March 13/14/15 (…) at later dates ”, indicated the organization of the competition in a press release on its website.

Six Nations Statement on Italy V England games, weekend 13/14/15 Marchhttps: //t.co/U9pas8oAvr

- Guinness Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 5, 2020

This is the second match postponed in the Tournament after the one originally scheduled for Saturday March 7 in Dublin between Ireland and Italy, where is the first European focus of the Covid-19 epidemic, which made in this country 107 dead for more than 3,000 cases.

In order to avoid crowds and crowds as much as possible, the Italian government has decided by a decree signed on Wednesday that all sports competitions, including Serie A football matches, must be held behind closed doors until April 3. Rather than in camera, the Six Nations Committee therefore favored the solution of postponement sine die.

A precedent dating from 2001

In addition to the two matches involving Italy, "all the other matches of the VI Nations Tournament should take place as planned," said the organizers, starting with England - Wales in London on Saturday then Scotland - France in Edinburgh on Sunday. A calendar that could be further modified by the epidemic of the new coronavirus, which killed four people in France, another European focus of the epidemic that appeared in China with 285 confirmed cases.

The previous postponement of Tournament matches for health reasons dates back to 2001, when the calendar had been upset by an epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom, shifting three games (Scotland-Ireland, Wales-Ireland and Ireland-England) to autumn.

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