Groundstaff failed in their bid to make the pitch playable at the weekend © Getty Images

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News: France and Ireland express disappointment

Tournaments/Tours: Six Nations

Teams: France | Ireland

Ireland's RBS Six Nations match in France has been rescheduled for March 4.

The game was originally scheduled to take place on Saturday, but was called off late in the day due to poor weather in Paris which left parts of the pitch frozen. The scheduling was condemned by the Irish Rugby Football Union who are angry at being given a six-day turnaround immediately after their second trip to Paris of the championship.

The two countries had been in contact over a preferred date for the game and it has been confirmed on the first weekend in March. It is the only free weekend before the end of this year's championship and it means Ireland and France will have to play Six Nations games on four successive weekends.

Six Nations Rugby Ltd chief executive John Feehan insists such a situation will never again occur, and accepted that changes need to be made to the current rules which state the referee, host union or Six Nations council sitting in its entirety are able to postpone a game.

"We very much regret what has happened. This is not something anybody would have planned for or would have wished to happen," Feehan said. "It's deeply disturbing. It's terrible that it happened. It's very frustrating for the fans and we very much feel for everyone who was affected, Irish and French.

"It has happened and we've got to look at how it happened and make sure it doesn't reoccur. We're going to have to revisit our procedures for calling a game off."