The head of the Premiership clubs has called for talks on the global calendar from 2020 to start before the end of the year, warning the status quo is not an option.
Countries cannot plan friendly international fixtures after the 2019 World Cup because the hemispheres are divided over ways of joining up the global season so club tournaments and Test matches are played in blocks, reducing the toll on leading players.
“We have to separate the club and international calendar,” said Mark McCafferty, Premiership Rugby’s chief executive, at the launch of the club season in England. “The danger is that everyone says ‘let’s do it our way’ and we are trying to avoid that. We have some very strong ideas but we have also got to listen.
“The international season structure is unsustainable as it is. It is a nonsense for countries like the United States and Japan not to have regular fixtures in the international calendar and they have to be brought in. We do not like the idea of moving the Six Nations and have our own concepts but the best way forward is to get the main stakeholders into a room together and work through it.”
Talks so far, which have made little progress, have tended to be among the tier one unions. New Zealand’s frustration is such they are considering going it alone after 2019 and arranging their own Tests, arguing the June and November international windows need to be changed because they fall at the end of the respective seasons in the two hemispheres.
“This is one of the most important issues facing the game and there is not much time left,” McCafferty said. “Continuing with the status quo is not an option and something has to be put in place. I do not see this as a north-south matter. It is about trying to dovetail the seasons better.”
McCafferty said the Premiership hoped to play another match in the United States this season despite London Irish, who hosted Saracens in New Jersey last March, no longer being in the league. The plan had been for Irish to play a match there for the next two seasons and a volunteer to give up a home fixture is needed.
“It will happen, although it might be a few weeks before we can confirm it,” McCafferty said. “It is a key part of what we are trying to achieve over the medium term. I do not see a prospect of an American franchise in the Premiership because we are an English league and have no plans to change that, but we are looking to grow our profile in the US.”
