RFUW have responded to the post below, which highlighted complaints being circulated in Italy about England's demand that the upcoming Six Nations game be moved from its original venue at Udine:
"The RFUW had no problem with the game being held in Udine – the problem was actually getting flights to that area of Italy and we made this very clear to the Italian union when we requested the change of venue.
Our travel agent company worked hard to secure flights to Venice but due to the Venice Festival, which is the same weekend, it was impossible. Our travel agent has also looked at flights to Verona, Bologna, Milan, Salzburg, Zagreb with no success due to it being half term, the ski season and Saturday being a change over day. The only flights available going out to Venice was on Thursday 9 th February but we were unable to leave that early due to our players being ‘amateur’ and their work commitments. We just can’t take them out of work three days earlier than the actual test match. Our policy to minimise disruption to players working lives is generally to leave the day before a test match and depart the next day, meaning our players are only away for three days.
You’re right there is a rule about venues being no more than 50 miles from an international airport – Venice is 95 miles away – this is actually a Six Nations rule not an IRB rule, but this is not the reason we requested the change, but as I said because of the lack of availability of flights."
"we were unable to leave that early due to our players being ‘amateur’ and their work commitments"... here's one of the most important challenges of next years: a gradual transition to professionalism of women's rugby. It would lead to some positive effects: a calendar of international test matches in spring and/or autumn, an opportunity for women's teams to follow men's ones and play in the same venues, the creation of an official world ranking of women's teams. Sorry for my poor English and my dreams...
ReplyDelete