England game may be fixed for April

The Six Nations Championship committee will today reveal tentative dates for Ireland's postponed matches against Wales, England and Scotland. It was initially suggested that the games would follow their original order, albeit on new dates. That now may not be the case.

The latest indication is that the weekend of April 28th/29th may now feature the Ireland-England game at Lansdowne Road rather than the Wales-Ireland match at the Millennium Stadium. The date originally proposed for the Ireland-England clash, the weekend of May 5th/6th, angered the English clubs, who were unhappy at the prospect of having their Premiership playoffs disrupted.

The latest proposed schedule would see Ireland play England on April 28th/29th, Scotland in Murrayfield on May 5th/6th and Wales on May 13th at the Millennium Stadium, just 24 hours after the English FA Cup final in the same stadium. The Welsh RFU has undertaken not to play at the stadium for seven days prior to the soccer final and that means that they could not face Ireland on the weekend of May 5th/6th.

A major problem in staging the Ireland-Wales game on Sunday, May 13th would be accommodating the number of Irish fans that would travel for the match; the soccer final the previous day would mean that hotel bedrooms would be very hard to come by. The Six Nations committee has been involved in meetings and dialogue for the past 36 hours to try and produce a new schedule.

Meanwhile, the decision to postpone Ireland's game against England, originally scheduled for March 24th, may not deter some English fans from travelling to Dublin. A spokesperson for Gullivers Sports Travel, one of the leading sports travel agents in England, said "the whole thing has degenerated in to a shambles".

"We have sent out a letter to the 1,000 people that we expected to bring to Dublin, explaining the current situation and outlining possible dates. We have already received confirmation from a number of people that they will be travelling to Dublin on March 24th. We will refund those people the price of the match ticket."

The company say they are not insured for postponements and while some hotels may accommodate fans on a new date others are charging a cancellation fee and Ryanair are not offering refunds.