New format for Five Nations

FIVE NATIONS rugby will be played on a Sunday for the first time in the history of the competition next season with England taking on Scotland in the Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield on March 22nd in a major departure from tradition.

The meeting between Wales and France two weeks later, which is due to take place at Wembley because of the redevelopment of the Cardiff Arms Park, will also be a Sunday fixture, while the rest of the games will have staggered kickoff times in order to facilitate live TV coverage of every match.

For next season the four games involving Ireland are all scheduled to be played on Saturdays but the IRFU have made it clear that, as a member of the Five Nations Committee which has approved next season's fixtures, they would be perfectly willing to play on Sundays in the future.

"It's simply one of the consequences of the television deal," said IRFU spokesperson Martin Murphy, "we are in a new era now and we'll go along with anything that is agreed with our partners from the other unions."

The changes are a direct result of new television contracts agreed with the BBC, French broadcasters and, in the case of England's home matches, Sky Sports. The need to gain approval from these companies before finalising kickoff times have meant that the precise start times of two games, including the visit of Ireland to Paris, have yet to be agreed upon.

"We would hope to know the details on that game fairly soon," said Murphy "but French TV as well as the BBC are involved there and it's really a matter for them to sort out between them."

Negotiations between the IRFU and RTE meanwhile are still continuing but the two sides are believed to be quite some distance apart on the issue of how much the station should contribute for rights to the championship and there would appear to be a chance that Ireland's games will not be shown by the station.