Ireland face the prospect of playing three Six Nations games over three successive weekends following yesterday's decision by the IRFU to accept Department of Agriculture recommendations and postpone scheduled internationals against England at Lansdowne Road (March 24th) and Scotland at Murrayfield (April 7th).

The Six Nations committee, who will meet within the next 48 hours to confirm new dates for the postponed matches, had already tentatively pencilled in the weekends of May 5th/6th and May 12th/13th. Assuming that the sequence is maintained, then Warren Gatland's charges would face Wales in the Millennium Stadium on April 28th/29th, England the following week and Scotland seven days after that.

If by some miracle Ireland managed to negotiate that period with three wins then it would have to rank as the greatest Grand Slam in either the Five or Six Nations championships. The odds against Ireland having no injury withdrawals would be astronomical.

The IRFU confirmed in a statement yesterday that they felt "obliged" to move to postpone the two matches and would continue to be guided by the authorities. "The Department of Agriculture (in Dublin) has advised the IRFU that 30 days should elapse from the date of the last confirmed case of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK before it is safe to resume international fixtures with UK-based teams without risk of introducing the virus into this country."

The union confirmed that they would meet with department officials again on Monday to discuss the plight of domestic fixtures. One more week's postponement in the AIB Leagues would mean that the schedule of matches would be four weeks behind. Clubs would either have to play two matches a week or the IRFU might consider abandoning the play-offs.

The union's statement also pointed out that the Ireland under-18 and under-19 teams will be able to fulfil fixtures in Italy and Chile respectively. Permission has been received for this squad and the senior, A and under-21 squads to train, assuming the relevant disinfectant measures are taken and the sessions are closed.

The senior squad is due to train in Dublin on Monday and Tuesday of next week. The English RFU reacted swiftly to the IRFU announcement. Chief executive Francis Baron said in a statement: "We have already met with the clubs to discuss various contingency plans for the postponement of the Ireland-England game on 24th March and we will continue to liaise directly with the clubs, the premiership sponsors, Zurich, and the Six Nations Committee over all the available options."

England coach Clive Woodward said: "We understand and are fully supportive of the decision taken by the Irish Government and IRFU to postpone the game in an attempt to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

"The players and management are naturally very disappointed as we were looking forward to the game. However, we will stay focused and prepare for our next game against France at Twickenham."

The postponements have hampered the preparations of the Lions management. Donal Lenihan, the Lions manager, yesterday intimated that the announcement of the 37-man squad to tour Australia during the summer would be postponed.

"There is now a case for extending the deadline to the end of April. It will certainly be no later than that for logistical reasons."

The Wales-Ireland match would be held before the later deadline, while our games against England and Scotland would be after the squad is chosen.