Chaos still king as sportsmen cope with disease fear

By Mark Jones

Sporting chaos continues to reign in Ireland as the restrictions imposed due to the foot-and-mouth crisis show little sign of being eased in the next two weeks.

Following the recent postponement of England’s high-profile Cheltenham festival, which attracts thousands of Irish punters, the meetings at both Fairyhouse and Punchestown next month are also under threat.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s Six Nations games against England and Scotland have also been postponed, while the GAA is still in a state of competitive shutdown.

Intercounty GAA activity is likely to resume on the weekend of March 31 if there is no further outbreak of the disease on any part of the island of Ireland. There are two rounds left in the National Football League, with three rounds of the hurling competition remaining. With the two finals scheduled for April 22 and 29, both will have to be rescheduled.

The same applies to the All-Ireland club finals, which were planned for the traditional St Patrick’s Day date on Saturday. With Sixmilebridge of Clare and Kilkenny’s Graigue-Ballycallan yet to replay their hurling semifinal for the right to meet Athenry of Galway, both deciders could be staged around the Easter weekend, according to the GAA president, Sean McCague.

"At all times, we will be taking advice from the Department of Agriculture in relation to disinfectant at grounds and other precautionary measures," McCague said. "But all going well, we hope to resume club and underage competitions on March 24 with the National Leagues a week later."

However, the advice from the Agriculture minister, Joe Walsh, is that no sporting activities be allowed until 30 days after the last reported outbreak in Britain remains. With the spread of the disease showing no sign of slowing across the Irish Sea — the total of cases had increased to 164 by last weekend — McCague’s plans may still be optimistic.

Both Ireland’s Six Nations matches against England and Scotland have been penciled in for early May, and, in the meantime, coach Warren Gatland is seeking two warmup games for his squad in South Africa.

Despite the postponement of the high-profile game with England, which was scheduled for a week from Saturday at Lansdowne Road, it is expected that as many as 10,000 supporters could still travel to Dublin for the weekend with the potential of carrying the foot-and-mouth virus.

The IRFU is planning to meet with the Department of Agriculture this week with a view to restarting the All-Ireland League. However, it seems that the competition may only kick off again at the end of the month at best.

As expected, the World Cross-Country championships, which were set for Leopardstown Racecourse on March 24 and 25, were switched to Ostend in Belgium. However, it was announced that Leopardstown has been scheduled to stage next year’s event. Meanwhile, all race meetings and other competitive sports are still in limbo.