Six Nations 2022: First Minister Mark Drakeford has 'no criticism' of WRU

Wales beat Australia in front of a capacity crowd at Cardiff's Principality Stadium in November

Mark Drakeford says he has "no criticism" of the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) for considering playing home Six Nations games in England.

The first minister announced on Friday that Covid-19 restrictions would not be relaxed in Wales, where at the moment fans are not allowed to attend games.

Mr Drakeford said he "has no problem" with the WRU considering their options.

"I make no criticism of the WRU for exploring all options available to them," he told BBC Sport Wales.

Restrictions were imposed on sporting events in Wales on 22 December, effectively meaning professional games are behind closed doors.

Wales are due to host Scotland in Cardiff on 12 February and the WRU is discussing potentially moving games to England.

Those discussions are unlikely to be halted in the wake of Mr Drakeford's announcement, as he said the peak of the Omicron wave was likely to be "about 10 to 14 days away", and insisted those calling for Covid restrictions to be eased were "factually wrong".

Mr Drakeford told BBC Sport Wales it was "debatable" as to whether games would actually be moved, but said he took no issue with the actions of the WRU.

"They are a business and as a responsible business it seems to me that they are bound to look at all the different possibilities that are there in front of them," he said.

"Whether they will choose to go ahead and play games elsewhere with the undoubted risks that that would bring were we to be still in the eye of the storm of coronavirus I think is a very debatable question.

"But whether I have any problem with them looking at the options they have available to them, no I don't.

"I think that is perfectly legitimate for them as a multi-million pound organisation. that has to think about its business as well as its sporting interests."

Any decision on hosting the Six Nations matches is unlikely to be resolved this month, with Mr Drakeford outlining what must happen before he would allow fans at sport events.

"We have to see the tide turn on the Omicron wave," he said.

"Then if the model is accurate and we see the numbers coming down reasonably rapidly, then we will be in a position to see whether it is safe to see greater social mixing.

"The issue under the microscope is whether we can do that [allow fans into stadiums] safely, whether the number of people falling ill with the virus is so high that adding further to that risk would be a responsible thing to do.

"We won't know that - I know it's really difficult when you're organising a major event - for a couple of weeks."

As things stand, sporting events in England have no restrictions, with full stadiums for Premier League and Championship football matches.

However, Mr Drakeford has accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of failing to take the necessary action to protect people in England from Covid.

"The one country that stands up as not taking action to protect its population is England," said the first minister.

He added that England was the "outlier" in the UK when it came to Covid.

However, Mr Drakeford said he would not criticise fans of Cardiff City, Swansea City, Newport County or Wrexham - who are currently in the unusual position of being able to watch their side in away games, but not home matches - for travelling to matches, but urged them to be cautious.

"I've been asked many questions over recent weeks, 'do I think people should do this, do I think people should do that?' It's not for the government to micro-manage the individual decisions that we make in our own lives," he added.

"What we ask people to do is to think carefully and consciously about the decisions that they are making. If they do choose to travel elsewhere to do it in a way that maximises the chances that they will be keeping themselves and other people safe.

"For some people the conclusion will be that the safest way is not to travel at all so it's not for me to tell people you should do this or they should do that.

"The basic advice is this - we are in the middle of the fastest growing wave of coronavirus that we have seen in this whole pandemic with a highly transmissible form of the virus which is making many people fall ill, 77,000 in the last week alone and those are just the people we know about, driving more people into hospital and we have seen people die from the Omicron variant just as they have died from other variants during the pandemic.

"That is the context in which people make their individual decisions and the advice of the Welsh government is to think hard, think carefully and do the most you can to keep yourself and other people safe."