Last weekend, Jim Eadie, along with hundreds if not thousands of Scottish rugby supporters, expected be wandering through Cardiff on his way to watch Scotland take on Wales in the Six Nations.
Instead, the 76-year-old was sitting in a Cardiff hotel contemplating a loss of over a thousand pounds, with no rugby game to go to.
Eadie and hundreds of his compatriots were in the same boat – having already arrived in Wales for Scotland’s last game of this year’s Six Nations, it was called off at the 11th hour.
The week leading up to the Wales game had seen a number of sporting fixtures fall foul of the coronavirus crisis that was sweeping the UK but even on the Friday morning, the WRU reassured fans they had taken medical advice and the game would go ahead.
However, just a few hours later, the WRU issued another statement confirming the fixture at the Principality Stadium had, indeed, been postponed. It was a decision that was not unexpected but the fact it was left until just 24 hours before the game kicked off was farcical and left both the home and particularly the away fans in an unacceptable position, blasts Eadie.
“It was really shambolic,” said Saltcoats native, Eadie, who a member of Ayr Rugby Club and a debenture holder at Murrayfield.
“I had paid over £1200 for the trip and arrived at my hotel on the Thursday evening having been told everything was going ahead as normal. Many others were in a similar situation to me.”
So instead of cheering on Scotland, as they attempted to win their third consecutive game of the championship, hundreds of Scotland fans had nowhere to congregate other than Cardiff’s many pubs. And the mood amongst the Scotland fans was, says Eadie, that of intense anger at the late call-off.
“It was a shambolic situation and people were very angry,” said Eadie.
“The chairman of the WRU, Gareth Davis, said he’s done this for the benefit of the fans – what benefit? How could it be of benefit to us to wait so late to call it off?
“I know this is an unprecedented situation and it’s terrible but things were dealt with shambolically."
And for Eadie, who is a regular attendee at Scotland’s games – he also went to Dublin for Scotland’s loss to Ireland at the start of this year’s championship – returning to Cardiff for the postponed fixture in October is unlikely.
“I’ve been going to Scotland games for years but I won’t be going to the re-arranged game because I can’t afford to pay another £1200,” he said.
“And many people I spoke to said they won’t be at the game in later in the year, not because we don’t want to but because we can’t afford it.”
The WRU refute the claim they were at fault for calling the game off so late, saying: “The Welsh Rugby Union maintained an open dialogue with, and continued to seek advice and direction from, the Welsh Government and other stakeholders, including the Six Nations, on this fast-moving issue.
“Every effort was made to stage this game but given the fluid and unprecedented nature of this issue a postponement became the only viable option.”
As things stand, this year’s Six Nations will be concluded in October, with Scotland aiming for a third consecutive win in the championship for the first time since 1996. However, regretfully for Eadie and a number of his fellow Scotland fans, they will not be in the stands to witness it.
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