Women's Six Nations: Wales cleared to play Scotland in Cardiff during lockdown

Wales and Scotland in action in 2019

Wales Women's rearranged Six Nations match against Scotland on 1 November at Cardiff City Stadium will go ahead.

The game is due to take place during the "firebreak lockdown" announced by the Welsh Government on Monday to combat Covid-19's spread.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: "We will be making exemptions to allow certain elite women's team sports fixtures to take place.

"These include the Wales women's rugby and football internationals."

Wales' fully professional sports teams are allowed to continue playing during the lockdown, which will run from 18:00 BST on Friday, 23 October until Monday, 9 November.

Although some of the Wales Women's squad could be classed as semi-pro, the Welsh Government has given the green light for national teams to continue playing.

While the men's team have playing contracts from the Welsh Rugby Union, as well as with their regional teams or clubs, this is not the case for the women's team.

Although the vast majority of the Wales Women squad play under contract for clubs in the English top flight, none of them are paid by the WRU.

England, by contrast, offered 28 full-time 15-a-side contracts to female players from January 2019.

Outgoing WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips said in July he would like contracts for leading players in place before the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand.

Wales will aim to finish their campaign on a high after defeats against Italy, Ireland, France and England, with interim head coach Darren Edwards taking charge for the first time.

The fixture was originally scheduled to take place at Cardiff Arms Park last March but was postponed due to the outbreak of coronavirus.

Wales have moved the game from Cardiff Arms Park because it has been used in the fight against Covid-19.

"We support the Welsh Government's firebreak to protect the NHS and the public in the fight against Covid-19 at this time," said WRU operations director Julie Paterson.

"We respect the measures mean we must stay at home wherever possible and do all we can to limit risk in terms of the transmission of the virus at this time.

"Our international and professional teams have the strictest possible health and hygiene protocols in place which include weekly Covid-19 tests and thorough health screening ahead of every training session."

The community game remains suspended while the WRU has written to its clubs with details of a further emergency funding payment of £450,000.

This includes an allocation from the WRU's emergency fund to specifically help ease the running costs incurred by clubs who own or manage facilities and £280k from Sport Wales to help clubs return to rugby.

"We are all looking forward to supporting our Wales teams from home this autumn as they look to end 2020 on a high note," said WRU community director Geraint John.

"We understand there will be disappointment we can't get together in our local rugby clubs to do this, and we need to pause our return to community rugby plan for the time being, but we must do all we can to support the NHS and protect our wider communities during this period.

"We will be in touch with our clubs before the end of the firebreak lockdown before any community rugby activity resumes.

"We hope the latest allocation of the WRU emergency fund will assist clubs who still need to meet running costs for their facilities and we are grateful to Sport Wales for helping clubs and community teams return to rugby."

Wales squad

Backs: Keira Bevan, Hannah Bluck, Alecs Donovan, Lleucu George, Hannah Jones, Jasmine Joyce, Courtney Keight, Kerin Lake, Ffion Lewis, Caitlin Lewis, Lisa Neumann, Kayleigh Powell, Paige Randall, Lauren Smyth, Elinor Snowsill, Megan Webb, Robyn Wilkins.

Forwards: Laura Bleehen, Alisha Butchers, Alex Callender, Gwen Crabb, Georgia Evans, Abbie Fleming, Cerys Hale, Cara Hope, Natalia John, Manon Johnes, Kelsey Jones, Molly Kelly, Bethan Lewis, Siwan Lillicrap (capt), Robyn Lock, Shona Powell-Hughes, Gwenllian Pyrs, Caryl Thomas.