The IRFU has officially cancelled the Ireland v Italy matches next weekend

The news was confirmed this afternoon.

It has been announced that The IRFU has made the decision to cancel all international Ireland v Italy rugby matches next weekend. An official statement from the IRFU was released this afternoon, which read: "The IRFU had a positive meeting with Minister Harris and his advisors today, where we requested a formal instruction as to the staging of the Ireland v Italy international matches over the weekend of 6/8 March." "At the outset we made it clear that the IRFU was supportive of the Governments’ need to protect public health in relation to the Coronavirus." "We were then advised, formally, that The National Public Health Emergency team has determined that the series of matches should not proceed, in the interests of Public Health." "The IRFU is happy to comply with this instruction. We will immediately begin to work with our Six Nations partners to look at the possibility of rescheduling the matches and would hope to have an update on this in the coming days." The news comes after Minister Simon Harris spoke about the concerns yesterday on RTÉ News. He said: "We've obviously taken a decision in relation to the Ireland v Italy rugby game, which was due to be held in Dublin on [Saturday] 7 March. The very clear view of the public health emergency team was that this game should not go ahead." The news means that the men's, women's and Under 20 matches will be cancelled next weekend.