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The Welsh Rugby Union has now confirmed itself that tomorrow’s Guinness Six Nations clash with Scotland at Principality Stadium will go ahead as planned.

With the coronavirus outbreak escalating rapidly, there has been mounting speculation in recent days over whether the game would go ahead as planned.

This weekend’s two other Six Nations matches - Italy-England and France-Ireland - have both been postponed, probably until October.

On top of that, the Guinness PRO14 season has been suspended indefinitely, while Wales’ football international against the USA this month has been called off.

But even with Premier League football now set to be cancelled the WRU has defended its position.

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A spokesman said: "WRU representatives have been in dialogue with Welsh Assembly Government minister for Health and Social Services Vaughan Gething, who provided much needed clarity on the Cobra meeting held yesterday.

"Throughout the WRU Board have followed the scientific advice of government, Public Health Wales and medical experts and determined that any game would be held or postponed based on that advice.



"Enhanced facilities for hand washing and sanitisation will be available at the stadium and there are measures in place to manage any issues with attendees on the day.

"In addition supporters are urged to follow the advice that is widely available on government websites in relation to the virus."

Minister for Health Vaughan Gething told a press conference on Thursday afternoon that the game will go ahead.

And Prime Minister Boris Johnson then laid out the UK Government policy, saying they were considering banning major sporting fixtures, but that it was not happening immediately.

“There is little medical reason at the moment to ban such events,” he said.

“The scientific advice is it has little effect on the spread, but it does place a burden on other public services.

“So we will be keeping that under review. We are keeping it up our sleeve, but it’s important to get the timing right.”

The UK Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance then explained the thinking in more detail.

He said cancelling large sports events was “not a major way to tackle this epidemic”.

“On average, one person infects two or three others,” he said.

“You therefore have a very low probability of infecting a large number of people in a stadium and a rather higher probability of infecting people very close to you.

“And that means that most of the transmission actually tends to take place with friends and colleagues and those in close environments - and not in the big environments.”







