LAST UPDATE | 5 Jan 2021
SIX NATIONS ORGANISERS have confirmed the 2021 Championship will take place in February and March as planned in response to suggestions it could be moved to the summer.
The tournament opens when Italy host France on 6 February — Ireland are due to face Wales in Cardiff the following day — but with the Lions’ tour to South Africa now in doubt because of the escalating coronavirus pandemic, it had been speculated that the Six Nations could be delayed by four months to take advantage of the potential gap in the window.
With large swathes of the population expected to be vaccinated by the summer, it has been argued there would be scope for crowds to attend, helping financially stricken unions.
But the tournament is set to go ahead in its customary window, unless disruption is caused by Covid-19.
“The Six Nations is planning for the tournament to go ahead as scheduled, but we are are monitoring the situation with the unions and their respective governments and health authorities,” a spokesperson said.
England expect the launch of their title defence against Scotland at Twickenham on 6 February to proceed as anticipated.
“We are committed to the fixtures and monitoring the situation with all parties. Planning continues aligned with current guidelines,” the Rugby Football Union said.
For the Six Nations to be moved to the summer, the Lions’ tour would have to be cancelled as soon as possible, but managing director Ben Calveley on Saturday set a deadline of February for a conclusion to the crunch talks over its viability.
Underlining the difficulty facing the Lions on the issue of whether to proceed is Monday’s admission by Health Secretary Matt Hancock that he is “very worried” about the South African variant of Covid-19.
The mutation is thought to be more transmissible than the new UK strain and more resistant to the vaccines, resulting in all flights from South Africa to these shores being banned.
I really hope it does go ahead, if we’re all stuck inside anyway, might as least have some good rugby on the tele.
@Anthony James McLaughlin: things will need to change if you want “good” rugby! But agreed
Can’t see it happening.
Should Vaccine all elite players Management and staff members by the end of the month make sense.
@Aido: so who does without to ensure that these health athletes are vaccinated?
@Peter Dickson: end of the day money talks
@Aido: no. Vaccinating all elderly, vulnerable and health care workers would though.
Maybe cancel all sport until around May, might give us a chance then to have a half decent summer of sport.
@running man: no way, we need sport now more than ever. There might be a case to postpone international sport alright, easier for clubs to keep players in bubbles etc. but definitely dont cancel all sport
@Sean Dalton: He has a point on putting sports off for now. Maybe deferring all to the weekend beginning 5th February mightn’t be a bad idea.
Like you I’d miss it terribly but there seems to be an increasing incidence of COVID so a break might help in stopping the spread.
Postpone it till summer and cancel the Lions tour. Give everyone a chance to get vaccinated and keep healthy. But in the end its all about money and the players are really just pawns to be used by European rugby and the unions
I’d love to see it being played in May at the end of the season, might have supporters by then and fast hard grounds would make great rugby.
What nonesense! It’s either a lock down or not. Plenty of time later when things get better, with vaccine. Anyway, why allow Rugby and not Golf. (The safest sport)