When Wales hosted Ireland in Cardiff, it was the eighth time a game had been held on a Friday night in the Six Nations. Seven of those fixtures have been held in Cardiff with all eight involving Wales.
The Welsh Rugby Union have now said they do not want to host more Friday night games - at least for the next two years.
Chairman of the WRU, Gareth Davies, told WalesOnline about the reasons behind the decision; the main one being the traffic chaos caused in Cardiff by Friday night fixtures.
We have told Six Nations we won’t be hosting Friday nights. I think primarily because of all the adverse criticism we do get. Coming into Cardiff is hellish on Friday anyway.
Our line to the Six Nations was, look, we have done our bit, so we think other people should share the burden. There’s a lot of adverse publicity about Friday because of infrastructure in Cardiff. We have carried the burden of Friday nights now for a while. What we have told the Six Nations is we won’t host games then for the next two year period.
From a Six Nations point of view, Friday night games make sense. There's little competition from Premier League and other sports on TV.
Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
