Rugby Championship looks to move its matches to northern hemisphere
The Rugby Championship is considering an unprecedented mid-tournament switch to Europe as part of contingency planning to ensure its fixture list can be completed, The Daily Telegraph understands.
Large parts of Australia, as well as the whole of New Zealand, are under strict coronavirus lockdown, while the state of Western Australia, where the Wallabies are scheduled to face the All Blacks on Aug 28, has imposed a 14-day quarantine on all arrivals from New Zealand. There are doubts, therefore, that the match can take place as planned in Perth next Saturday.
With the Covid situation worsening in both countries – Sydney and the rest of New South Wales have been in lockdown for nine weeks, with no imminent loosening of restrictions – the competition organiser, Sanzaar, has taken the step of considering switching the remainder of the southern hemisphere’s premier rugby tournament to the UK, Ireland and France. The championship has only once played a match outside of the four participating nations, when Australia beat Argentina at Twickenham in 2016.
Among possible venues are the Stade de France, Twickenham, the Aviva Stadium and the Principality Stadium, all of which would expect to host fans under the respective countries’ current coronavirus regulations. The potential switch is likely to be well received by the prospective hosts, who have all lost significant revenue over the past 12 months as a result of staging matches behind closed doors.
On the potential switch, a Rugby Football Union spokesperson told The Telegraph: “The RFU is always open to discussion regarding the global calendar and we are aware of the challenges facing the Rugby Championship at the moment. Much further consultation is required around player welfare and potential organisational and commercial impacts for all unions, therefore it is too early to speculate on any developments.”
Several logistical headaches remain and, unless the fixtures were to be played solely in France and
Ireland, some form of exemption would be required from the UK Government. South Africa is currently on the UK’S travel red list, meaning only British and Irish nationals and residents are permitted entry, even with a vaccine.
And, although Australia and New Zealand are on the green list, the two countries’ borders have been closed, even to nationals and residents, since the start of the pandemic, meaning an exemption would be required for the players to return home.
The 2021 Rugby Championship is due to finish in early October and the northern hemisphere’s autumn
internationals begin at the end of that month, with Wales hosting the All Blacks in Cardiff on Oct 30. The two matches’ proximity might make switching the Rugby Championship to Europe seem sensible, but it would mean that Australia, New Zealand and Argentina would have to go as long as five months without seeing their families. South Africa, too, have been in their Covid bubble since the end of June, when they started preparing for the British and Irish Lions series.
Other reported possibilities in Sanzaar’s contingency planning are a move to South Africa – where fixtures would have to take place without fans – or Queensland, the eastern Australia state which recorded zero new Covid community cases on Wednesday. The issue, however, with a move to the east of the country is finding stadiums big enough to host the matches on consecutive weekends in the middle of the Australian Football League and National Rugby League seasons.
Prof Denis Kinane, the founding scientist of Cignpost Diagnostics, the company which has overseen Covid testing and bubbles at Twickenham, Wimbledon and the PGA European Tour, believes the plan is feasible. “It wouldn’t be a problem – we saw at the Euros that we can do it,” Prof Kinane said. “These teams usually charter planes and get tested before and after, and we support them with PCR. There is no problem for the teams to come.”