Japan and Fiji are set to join the teams that make up the Six Nations in a tournament to cover the loss of the Southern Hemisphere superpowers this autumn.
With the likes of the All Blacks not set to travel north due to the coronavirus travel restrictions, Six Nations chiefs have acted hastily to rescue the schedule.
The eight teams will be split into two groups of four, with England up against Ireland, Wales and Fiji.
Whether there will be fans at any of these games remains to be seen, but the RFU forecast losses of £122m if no matches were played, and are desperate to have some spectators at Twickenham.
It leaves top English players facing a gruelling year from mid-August through to next year’s Lions tour of South Africa. In the autumn alone England will play five Tests and face the Barbarians.
This season’s Champions Cup will conclude in September and the Premiership ends on October 24, the day before England are due to play the Barbarians. The following weekend this year’s Six Nations campaign is set to be completed, with England playing Italy, Wales v Scotland and France v Ireland. Italy’s visit to Ireland, which was also postponed due to the pandemic, will take place on the weekend of October 24.
The first weekend of November (7/8) would be a rest weekend, before the new tournament takes place over the following four weekends. Each team will play the other team in their pool, before the final weekend when they would meet the team that finishes in the corresponding position in the other pool.
To complicate things further, next season’s Premiership is due to start on Friday November 20, which is just the second weekend of the new tournament, meaning that England players will miss the first three rounds of domestic action.
