DAVID SOLE

Covid-19 is playing havoc with rugby yet again.

Not only has the women’s Six Nations been postponed, along with the Under-20 Championship, but so have European Cup matches.

The women’s tournament is likely to be pushed back into the spring or summer, which has other ramifications for their game.

With the Women’s World Cup due to take place in New Zealand in September – and three places still to be filled with European teams – scheduling both tournament and qualifiers is going to be very challenging.

The European issue is more significant, as it will be incredibly difficult to find a gap in the packed rugby calendar to reschedule these pool matches.

So the competition may go straight to the knock-out stage.

The postponement of the European Cup games was a consequence of the French Government mandating that French teams would not be allowed to play their games – either at home in France or away in the UK or Ireland – due to the increased infection rate of the new virus strain.

While the men’s Six Nations is still scheduled to begin in February, there must be question marks over whether this will go according to the planned timetable.

With the pandemic running out of control again, there may even be some

Sorting out the rugby calendar remains a priority

doubt as to whether the British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa will go ahead as intended in the summer.

Aside from the obvious financial implications of this which have been well documented, the greater challenge is that of logistics.

With travel corridors being shut down, there must be question marks not only of the ability to run the Six Nations tournament, but also of the sensibility of having the competition at this point in the pandemic.

However, if it isn’t run in February and March, then when could it take place?

And could the Lions tour take place as proposed?

In the middle of last year, there was a great deal of discussion about creating a unified international rugby calendar, taking both North and South hemispheres into account in the planning process.

What could have been a revolutionary concept for rugby seems to have fallen by the wayside, and we are back to working within the constraints of the different seasons.

As matches come under threat so the compression in the annual rugby calendar comes into focus, and each separate stakeholder argues their cause vigorously.

The clubs want their Championship and European competition; the International Boards want the Six Nations and the Rugby Championship; South Africa wants the Lions – and the fans just want to get back into grounds.

The introduction of the Covid-19 vaccine may help as the year develops.

But sorting the calendar remains a key priority.