Irish province Munster's Celtic League match against Welsh region the Scarlets was called off on Saturday, a day before Sunday's kick-off, due to the freezing weather sweeping Britain and Ireland.
The pitch at Leinster's Musgrave Park ground in Cork had been covered with a "warm air blanket" since Friday morning.
But overnight temperatures dropped to minus nine degrees Celsius and officials said a further deterioration was expected later Saturday.
Munster chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald said: "While our inspection this morning showed part of the pitch unplayable, the continuing use of the 'warm air blanket' would, in our opinion have left the pitch playable by 5pm (1700GMT) tomorrow (Sunday) if conditions remained as they are now.
"However, given the forecast of lower temperatures and snow overnight, we felt it would be unfair to those travelling or planning to travel to leave a final decision until the morning and have therefore abandoned the idea of playing the game."
Munster's decision meant the only one of this weekend's five Celtic League matches to have, as yet, survived the weather, was Saturday's late kick-off between Edinburgh and Cardiff Blues.
Copyright 2010 AFP European Edition
