England In 4 Nations Plan For The Autumn

England and Wales plan to finalise fixtures for an emergency Four Nations tournament this autumn in response to rugby’s worsening global crisis.

- Peter Jackson

Moves to confine the event to the four Home Unions are being made amid growing fears that the Covid-19 pandemic will wreak further havoc by wiping out the entire southern hemisphere tours scheduled for November.

That threatens to raise the total number of major Test matches postponed or cancelled because of the coronavirus to almost 40 – four from the last fortnight of the Six Nations, 15 due to have been played south of the Equator from next month and 19 more in the autumn.

New Zealand, whose borders will remain closed ‘for a long time’ according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, are resigned to losing an out-of-window Test in Japan worth seven figures as well as their matches in England, Scotland and Wales.

Brent Impey, chairman of the NZRFU board, underlined the grim reality. “The game is in crisis and survival mode,’’ he said from Auckland. “Here as much as anywhere else.’’

They hope to fill the void by playing a four-match Bledisloe Cup series against Australia, whose very own survival has been eased, albeit temporarily, by a low-interest emergency relief loan from World Rugby of around £7m.