A spike in coronavirus cases in parts of Australia and New Zealand could see the remainder of the 2021 Rugby Championship played on European shores in an unprecedented move.
SANZAAR—the body that governs the tournament and the four competing nations—is reportedly considering the switch as it looks to complete the rest of the competition without interruption.
South Africa will host Argentina for the second time in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, after which seven of the nine remaining fixtures are scheduled to take place in Australia.
But new lockdowns in Australia and New Zealand have thrown the tournament’s immediate future into doubt, with the former bringing a two-week quarantine back into effect for new arrivals.
And Rugby Pass reported SANZAAR could export its remaining Rugby Championship fixtures to Paris, London, Dublin and Cardiff as a means of avoiding isolation measures.
The four teams participating in the Rugby Championship would usually play one another at home and away, but the coronavirus pandemic forced organisers into a schedule rethink.
Australia was selected as the venue for the majority of this year’s games to limit the amount of travel, including two weekends of back-to-back double-headers on the third and fourth matchdays.
The southern hemisphere’s loss would be Europe’s gain, however, with fans north of the equator likely more than happy to host four of the world’s best rugby nations in the coming weeks.
New Zealand were preparing to fly out to Perth when news emerged this week of a Covid-19 spike in Auckland, while New South Wales in Australia has been the site of another outbreak.
Many of those new cases confirmed appear to be the highly infectious Delta variant, which has proved more difficult to prevent from spreading.
Detouring via Singapore, teams travelling from Australia or New Zealand could travel to the United Kingdom—and potentially other European destinations—without having to quarantine at all.
The Premier League got underway last weekend with many English stadia hosting full-capacity crowds, giving SANZAAR some commercial incentive to send matches abroad.
The Wallabies beat Argentina 33-21 at Twickenham when a Rugby Championship game was previously played overseas in 2016, but this would be the first time multiple matches are exported.
Details of a potential European ‘tour’ are still few and far between, but SANZAAR presumably hopes to hold games at the Stade de France, Twickenham, the Aviva Stadium and the Principality Stadium in their respective cities.
The schedule overhaul could mean the centenary meeting between the All Blacks and South Africa is played on neutral soil.
As things stand, New Zealand are set to host the Springboks at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin on September 25, the 100th encounter between the sport’s two top-ranked nations.
New Zealand beat their fierce rivals 23-13 last time they clashed, which was also on neutral ground in Yokohama, Japan, during the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Coach Ian Foster’s side lead the all-time head-to-head with 59 wins compared to South Africa’s 36, but an impartial audience could boost the Springboks’ chances.
South American underdogs Argentina could also stand to benefit from the competition fielding fixtures in Europe, the only Rugby Championship nation that wouldn’t host a game this year as things stand.
