World Rugby spark autumn fixture crisis

RUGBY is on course for a club-versus-country battle after the international summer tours were postponed until later this year. World Rugby yesterday confirmed that the Test schedule for the July window, including Scotland’s tour to South Africa and New Zealand, has been shelved because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said: ‘To take on world champions South Africa in a two-match Test series doesn’t come around very often and it would have been very special. ‘To go on from those two matches to then play the All Blacks, who we’ve not played away from home since 2000, would have made it the best, toughest, most challenging tour I can ever remember. ‘Maybe later in the year we’ll still be able to play some, if not all, of those games. But we’ll see. ‘As a tour, it would have provided an excellent learning experience, but we fully understand the reasons why it can’t go ahead. ‘We wish the players, staff and families of both South Africa and New Zealand well at this difficult time and look forward to testing ourselves against them in future.’ World Rugby are now hoping to reschedule fixtures for October, leaving governing bodies scrambling for space in the calendar.

Sportsmail understands a video call between all parties is planned for next week in anticipation of hardline negotiations. Clubs are losing millions of pounds in advertising and TV revenue, so are desperate to resume domestic and European competitions. Unions are also committing to finishing the Six Nations and fulfilling their November Test schedule, resulting in a huge bottleneck of fixtures. A tug of war over Scotland’s star players who ply their trade in England and France, such as Stuart Hogg and Finn Russell, appears inevitable. European Rugby (EPCR) chairman Simon Halliday has already hit out at World Rugby for ignoring the clubs. ‘We can’t just be excluded from the discussion and we won’t be excluded from the discussion,’ he said last month. ‘We are reading that international rugby could be played through October/November, which is a key time for our 2020-21 competition and potentially a date for this season’s final. ‘To hear there’s planning going on for international games on those dates does a lot of damage to us. We have commitment to partners and broadcasters. We have a responsibility to our business.’ His scathing criticism was followed up by English and French leagues writing to World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont, demanding more consideration. EPCR then announced proposals to hold the 2020 finals on October 16 and 17, so something has to give way.