New Zealand rugby chiefs are optimistic Wales' two-Test series with the All Blacks, scheduled for next month, will now take place this autumn.
And the matches would take place with fans allowed into Eden Park, Auckland, and Wellington's Sky Stadium, as New Zealand looks set to lower its Covid-19 alert system to level one, which would end curbs on mass gatherings and allow fans at sporting events.
New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson told Radio New Zealand on Wednesday the governing body was looking at a "not insignificant" schedule of international rugby in the last quarter of 2020.
Unions are due to meet on June 15 to thrash out plans for a new global calendar, with one of the options to move summer Tests to October in the future. You can read more about the two choices on the table here.
Robinson went on to say there was "appetite" for a number of possibilities, including playing the All Blacks' postponed July Tests against Wales and Scotland in October, depending on the status of club competitions in the northern hemisphere.
He said: "We're certainly excited about the possibility of July moving to October ... It's very much a wait and see.
“There are things breathing a huge amount of life into the game.
"There are a lot of things to be optimistic about.
"The most likely international scenario we can see at the moment is playing some sort of international rugby in the last quarter of the year.
"We’re talking to all different parties around what that might look like. Some are the northern hemisphere, some in terms of our Sanzaar partners.
"The underlying sense is one of optimism.
"There are others that are reaching out and they are looking at New Zealand and seeing whether there is an opportunity to come here depending on border and quarantine and border issues."
Wales are also due to play the All Blacks at home in November, as well as world champions South Africa, Argentina and Fiji.
Those matches, if they still go ahead, seem highly likely to be played behind closed doors.
