Papal visit has been cancelled

The proposed Papal visit to the Vatican by the Irish squad for tomorrow week has been cancelled because Munster have no choice but to play Biarritz next Sunday in the European Cup quarter-final.

With the Irish squad having had to bring forth their departure to Rome to next Tuesday, plans had been made for the squad to make the visit next Wednesday, the stipulated day for public audiences with the pontiff, thereby emulating the international soccer side's visit during Italia '90.

However, with Munster playing Biarritz on Sunday, this has scuppered a scheduled two-day session in the ALSAA complex at Dublin Airport next Monday as the Munster contingent would probably require a rest day. Hence, with preparatory time at a premium and Tuesday taken up by travelling arrangements, the proposed double session has been postponed to Wednesday, at the expense of the proposed Papal visit.

From a purely rugby perspective though Warren Gatland could scarcely conceal his anger yesterday over the Heineken Cup scheduling which has left the bulk of his side with only a six-day interlude before the start of the Six Nations' Championship away to Italy the following Saturday.

"Considering that we were going to have two sessions next Monday, that's going to be completely compromised now and we're probably going to have to rest all the Munster players involved and give them a day off," said the Irish coach yesterday. "We weren't training on Tuesday because that's a travel day but hopefully we'll make one or two sessions before our first Six Nations' game with the team," he added sardonically.

The Irish coach revealed that he had telephoned the IRFU chief executive Philip Browne on Sunday night after hearing of the projected Sunday slot for the Munster-Biarritz European Cup quarter-final. "I did ring Philip to say that it wasn't ideal and he knew it would go down like a lead balloon but he just said `we're dictated to by French television, we signed the contract and there's nothing else we can do,' so we've just got to take it on the chin and drive on."

You'd have to wonder if the IRFU kicked up enough of a protest about this and it's significant to note that France have an additional day to prepare for their Six Nations opener against Scotland on Sunday week. Why, therefore, couldn't the Stade Francais quarter-final have been played on Sunday, with Munster-Biarritz going ahead on Saturday? "It's not ideal but it's something that will hopefully galvanise us and just bring us closer together, and maybe turn the negatives into positives," added Gatland.

The irony of the current disruptions to Ireland's preparations is that, theoretically, with central contracting the build-up should never have been better. "A lot of people were saying before this weekend that the national team were disrupting the provinces in their preparations. I would strongly argue the opposite. It's important that Munster do well but the priority for us and Irish rugby is that this team does well in the Six Nations."

Lest anybody inclined to get out the violins, Gatland also stressed: "We don't want to spend the next 10 days or two weeks making excuses. If we get beaten by Italy then I'll be extremely disappointed no matter what team we put out. We're going to go there with a few problems - disruptions, injuries, Munster playing on Sunday - we know these things. But I'm not going to make excuses. We're good enough to beat Italy."