Wales delay decision on venue for Scots clash
● New dates confirmed for Six Nations matches postponed due to Covid outbreak ● Green light for new eight-team tourney
New dates for the postponed matches from the 2020 Guinness Six Nations Championship have been confirmed and Scotland’s final game, against Wales away, will now take place, as expected, on Saturday 31 October. But organisers have still not revealed where the match will be played.
The Principality Stadium in Cardiff has been ruled out because it is being used as a field hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic and it was expected that the game would be switched to London, with Twickenham thought to be the favoured option.
However, the Welsh Rugby Union is understood to be also considering other venues in Wales, with the Liberty Stadium in Swansea one of the contenders.
Scotland’s match against Wales was due to be played on 14 March but was postponed the day before as fears grew over the spread of the coronavirus. The UK went into lockdown shortly afterwards.
Three other Six Nations games were also postponed and they too have been rescheduled. Ireland will host
Men’s Six Nations
Sat 24 Oct
Ireland v Italy (Aviva Stadium, KO TBC)
Sat 31 Oct
Wales v Scotland (venue TBC, 2.15pm) Italy v England (Stadio Olimpico, 4.45pm) France v Ireland (Stade de France, 8pm)
Women’s Six Nations Weekend of 24-25 Oct
Scotland v France
Ireland v Italy
Weekend of 31 Oct-1 Nov
Wales v Scotland
Italy v England
France v Ireland
Weekend of 5-6 Dec
Italy v Scotland
Italy in Dublin on 24 October before the tournament is completed a week later with a trio of ‘Super Saturday’ matches.
The Welsh and Scots are first up, with their match kicking off at 2:15pm. England will then take on Italy in Rome at 5:45pm before France and Ireland meet at the Stade de France at 8pm in a Paris match that will decide who wins the championship.
After the Six Nations games have been completed, a new international tournament will take place involving the Six Nations sides and two guest teams, likely to be Fiji and Japan.
The sides will be split into two groups of four, with Scotland expected to be alongside France, Italy and Japan. The Scots are likely to play France and Japan at home and Italy away. The other group is expected to feature England, Ireland, Wales and Fiji. Teams from each group will play each other in a final round of matches based on their finishing positions. The match dates are 14, 21 and 28 November and 5 December.
The matches will take the place of the autumn Tests which have been cancelled.
Six Nations organisers said: “In recent weeks the Six Nations has also been progressing contingency plans for an alternative tournament format in place of the Autumn Internationals for 2020, primarily driven by travel restrictions not allowing many international teams to play the scheduled matches.
“This tournament will be a unique eight-team competition, involving the Six Nations unions and two other international teams. We are currently finalising match schedules, operational details including venues as well as commercial arrangements. Further announcements relating to this competition are expected to be made later this month.”
New dates for the postponed matches in the Women’s Six Nations have also been announced. Scotland will host France on the weekend of 24 October, face Wales away on the weekend of 31 October and Italy away on the weekend of 5 December.
However, the postponed games in the men’s Under-20 Six Nations will not be played.
The statement added: “With regards to the U20 Six Nations championship, due to season scheduling constraints, it was decided that the three outstanding matches would not be played and there would be no winner for the 2020 Championship.” 2 Captains Alun Wyn Jones of Wales and Stuart Hogg of Scotland pictured at the Guinness Six Nations launch in London in January. The sides will finally meet on 31 October.