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Six Nations latest: Quarantine exemptions granted for Wales and Scotland games in Paris

(Photo by John Berry/Getty Images

Fears that travel restrictions in France would derail the upcoming Guinness Six Nations matches in Paris featuring Scotland and Wales have been allayed for now after the French government admitted it is possible for the teams led by Gregor Townsend and Wayne Pivac to get the necessary exemption to avoid quarantine. 

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Six Nations CEO Ben Morel had revealed on Wednesday at the virtual media launch of this year’s tournament that there were still doubts over the staging of the two planned matches in Paris due to quarantine rules.

Due to the health crisis, the rules surrounding admission into France insisted on a week in isolation for anyone arriving there including elite sports teams, a restriction that would have made it impossible for the Scots and the Welsh to respectively play there on February 28 and March 20.  

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Wayne Pivac and Alun Wyn Jones talk Wales a this week’s Six Nations launch

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Wayne Pivac and Alun Wyn Jones talk Wales a this week’s Six Nations launch

An exemption for elite sports had still not been received by Morel and his fellow Six Nations organisers in midweek when he spoke at the tournament launch. However, it has since emerged that quarantine exemptions will be granted for Scotland and Wales to play their away Six Nations games against France – provided the pandemic doesn’t worsen in the weeks leading up to those matches.  

L’Equipe have reported that the crisis unit in France in charge of handing the pandemic have now decided to grant the necessary exemptions for the two teams to travel to Paris. A path was also cleared for Fabien Galthie’s team to fulfil their away games, starting in Rome on February 6 and following up with February 14 and March 13 assignments in Dublin and London respectively.    

“We have provided all our protocols,” said Morel on Wednesday. “We have been considered as extremely robust and we are seeking some of the clarification on the specific rules about quarantine exemptions, which would look at entry from the UK, whether it is re-entry for the French teams or entry for the other unions.

“We have reinforced our testing protocols, with the main point being we are doubling up on the testing and in the week prior to entering the international camp. Generally, elite sports benefit from widespread exemptions and what we are awaiting is the detail on the exemption. At the same time, we’re confident, based on our protocols, that will be a positive outcome.”

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Everyone knows Robertson is not supposed to be doing the coaching

Yeah it’s not actually that I’m against the idea this is not good enough, I just don’t know whos responsible for the appalling selections, whether the game plan will work, whether it hasn’t worked because Razor has had too much input or too little input, and whether were better or worse for the coachs not making it work against themselves.

I think that’s the more common outlook rather than people panicking mate, I think they just want something to happen and that needs an outlet. For instance, yes, we were still far too good for most in even weaker areas like the scrum, but it’s the delay in the coaches seemingly admitting that it’s been dissapoint. How can they not see DURING THE GAME it didn’t go right and say it? What are they scared of? Do they think the estimation of the All Blacks will go down in peoples minds? And of course thats not a problem if it weren’t for the fact they don’t do any better the next game! And then they finally seem to see and things get better. I’ve had endless discussions with Chicken about what’s happening at half time, and the lack of any real change. That problem is momentum is consistent with their being NO progress through the year. The team does not improve. The lineout is improved and is good. The scrum is weak and stays weak. The misfires and stays misfiring. When is the new structure following Lancasters Leinster going to click?



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