WALES' First Minister Mark Drakeford has said he has no problem with the decision of the Welsh RFU to explore hosting Wales’s Six Nations home matches in England.

He told the latest Welsh Government Covid briefing on Friday that the issue to be decided is whether the Six Nations can be held safely in Wales.

The First Minister said: “There are ways in which we have learned over the pandemic to make major events organised in safer ways.

“It’s always been the case that the risks in major events are less at the event itself, particularly when those events are well run as certainly the autumn internationals were.

“It is how people travel to the stadium, it is how people gather around the stadium, it is how people behave – not at the game but around the game.

“So there are further measures that could be adopted that would help to mitigate those risks.

“Of course, we would all far prefer to be in a position where the Six Nations could go ahead with people watching the game here in Wales.

“That is not a matter of dispute between any party. The issue that is under the microscope is whether we can do that safely.

During the briefing, the First Minister praised the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) for their work during the pandemic.

Mr Drakeford added: “I make no criticism of the WRU for exploring all the options that are available to them.

“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.

“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, you know, a very debatable question.

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

“I think that it is perfectly legitimate for them as a multimillion-pound organisation that has to think of its business as well as its sporting interests.”