World Rugby has cleared Ireland of accusations levelled by a Sunday newspaper that the IRFU applied pressure on the World Cup organisers to stop the Japan v Scotland match being rearranged in the wake of Typhoon Hagibis. “We were very clear with everyone before the tournament about the detailed contingency plans in place but also tournament rules about how contingency plans could be implemented. Tournament rules for Rugby World Cup specify that for the pool phase any match not completed on the day scheduled will be not moved to a different day. This is clear in the tournament rules and not new at Rugby World Cup 2019. “We were not able to implement contingency plans that would treat all matches and teams consistently and fairly.

Source: Irish Examiner October 15, 2019 06:11 UTC