After the cancellation of the England-France match scheduled for Saturday, the French Rugby Federation (FFR) has "taken note" of the decision of World Rugby and "calls all its supporters to follow the instructions of the local authorities or the Embassy of France and fully associates with their disappointment.
The French Rugby Federation (FFR) said, through the voice of its vice president Serge Simon, take "act" of World Rugby's decision, on Thursday, to cancel the England-France World Cup match, scheduled for Saturday in Yokohama, because of typhoon Hagibis. "The French Federation takes note of the decision of World Rugby," Serge Simon told the press in Kumamoto, reading the statement issued a few minutes earlier by the FFR. In this one, the FFR "calls all its supporters to follow the instructions of the local authorities or the embassy of France and associates itself fully with their disappointment" .
++ Rugby World Cup. England-France and New Zealand-Italy canceled due to typhoon
"The World Rugby institution has assured the Federation that all tickets issued will be refunded and that it will communicate with those concerned as quickly as possible," he added. Serge Simon then refused to answer questions from the press in the lobby of the Nikko Hotel. He turned on his heels to join the rest of the delegation, left around 13:00 local (06:00 French) aboard two coaches for Oita, some 150 km further south of the island of Kyushu, the southernmost of the four major component Japan. The staff of the hotel, where the Blues arrived on September 23, had deployed a banner "Thank you! Come on the Blues! By way of goodbye.
The Blues will prepare on the spot from Thursday evening their quarter-final scheduled at Oita October 20 at 4:15 pm (09:15 French), most likely against Wales. With the cancellation of the meeting (two points for each team, draw 0-0), the XV of France finished in fact second in Pool C, behind England. No more players than the coach Jacques Brunel or the members of the management wanted to express themselves on the cancellation of the meeting.
The typhoon Hagibis, announced as one of the most powerful of the last decades in the region, should touch this weekend a large part of Japan. He led World Rugby to cancel, in addition to England-France, New Zealand - Italy, scheduled for Saturday at Toyota (center).
Alan Gilpin, director of the # RWC2019, explains the cancellation of 2 group matches following the super typhoon #Hagibis this weekend: "Priority to safety" pic.twitter.com/qCDem4pnQ4
- Rugby World Cup (@RugbyWorldCupFR) October 10, 2019Share this article
Rugby World Cup. FFR "takes note" of the cancellation of match England-FranceOuest-France.frENLARGE