Former England player Martin Corry has blamed the French Rugby Federation for the postponement for last Saturday's match between France and Ireland.
Concerns over the state of the Stade de France pitch were voiced early in the week but despite the sub-zero temperatures the FFR had been confident the match would take place as planned on Saturday.
Officials from the IRB and FFR deemed the pitch playable at an inspection on Friday evening and again just two hours before the 9pm local time kick-off. However, when referee Dave Pearson checked conditions a short time later he found parts of the pitch to be frozen.
The English official was left in the unenviable position of having to abandon the match just six minutes before kick-off and Corry insists the FFR were to blame and not Pearson, who was simply acting in the best interests of the players.
"As both a player and pundit, I've been asked often to comment on many aspects of the game, but it's rare I'm asked to give my thoughts on a non-game," Corry wrote in a column on PlanetRugby.com.
"And that's exactly what the France v Ireland game turned out to be, an absolute fiasco of farcical administration and incompetence.
"Where international rugby is concerned, loyalty and commitment must be shown to the fans, players, TV stations, and, importantly, the sponsors, who are spending hundreds of thousands supporting the sport.
"Both of those qualities, together with common-sense and foresight, were sadly lacking from the French authorities.
"As the day progressed the conditions got worse and worse, the FFR compounded their errors buy refusing to consider options such as an earlier kick off, mitigation of the freeze by using equipment and technology, and then, leaving it to the last possible minute to make a decision that was inevitable.
"To compound this, their attempt then to effectively hang referee Dave Pearson out to dry was wholly inappropriate. Pearson's remit is simple; is this surface fit for rugby? That is the only decision he is empowered to make, nothing more. The events that led up to him calling off the game are the key issues, not the decision itself, which, by that time, was pretty much a fait accompli."
Vincent Clerc was one of those to express his concern over the state of the pitch in the days leading up to the match but his pleas for an earlier kick-off were ignored.
Corry believes the match would have gone ahead had the FFR listened to the French winger.
"At Tuesday's pre-match press conference, Vincent Clerc, a player I respect highly and an international veteran of almost 60 Tests, implored the authorities to take note of the weather forecast and to manage the pitch properly," he went on.
"He told them, as a winger who naturally spends a lot of time near the touchlines, that during the Italian game the pitch was freezing up and he was aware much lower temperatures had been forecast. He was totally ignored."