MILAN: Heavy rains in recent days in the flood-hit city of Genoa have forced the cancellation of tomorrow’s rugby Test between Italy and Argentina, officials said yesterday.
“The ITA v ARG test match won’t be played on Saturday due to meteo alert in Genoa,” said a short statement on the Twitter feed of the Italian rugby federation (FIR). Officials said they were now studying the possibility of moving the match to “Friday at 5pm (1600 GMT)” but told AFP if this was not possible the match “will have to be cancelled”.
Officials said the match would not be moved from the initial venue of the Luigi Ferraris stadium in Genoa.
“We can’t even consider moving to another venue, it would be too complicated,” FIR media spokesman Andrea Cimbrico said.
“Friday at 5pm (1600 GMT) is really our only practical window of opportunity to stage the match. Otherwise it will have to be cancelled.”
Heavy storms are predicted for Genoa on Saturday. Cimbrico added that the decision was taken following hours of meetings with officials from the city, including those tasked with guaranteeing public safety.
“The decision was made because of the very strong possibility of heavy rain on Saturday. Security officials felt that holding the match then posed just too much of a risk.” Italy began their November Test series with a morale-boosting 24-13 win over Samoa in Ascoli last week. But after moving on to Genoa at the start of the week, the Azzurri were forced to train indoors due to poor conditions outside. AFP
