Fiji and Japan will be among the teams lining up alongside the Six Nations in a hastily organized eight-team international competition that will be held this autumn.
The tournament was organized as a way to compensate for the affected European tour schedule after sports got suspended. The tournament is expected to offer the greatest rugby action in months, with punters at Betway88 happy about the prospects of wagering on the games.
According to BBC reports, the tournament will take over the end-of-year European tours by Southern hemisphere teams before the international rugby union can get a way forward. The competition will kick off on 14th November this year, barely two weeks after the completion of the postponed Six Nations tournament.
Unfortunately, South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina and Australia won’t be available for test plays, as they’ll be busy with the delayed Rugby Championship scheduled for October. That means Italy and Ireland will be playing six tests, which is double their normal autumn load.
England will be starting their campaign against the Barbarians on 25th October, though World Rugby has authorized a one-off extension on the set rules on releasing the players. In the surprise tournament, England is placed in the same group as Ireland, Wales and Fiji. The other pool features Scotland, France, Japan and Italy.
In each group, the teams will play against each other until the final weekend when every team will face off against the side corresponding to their position in the other group. That means rugby punters at Betway will have plenty of opportunities to wager and enjoy competitive rugby action.
Japan has a huge disadvantage, considering that they cancelled their league earlier in February and their next season doesn’t kick off till January next year. On the other side, England’s summer series was cancelled, though they were due to play Ireland and Scotland in November.
The tournament will be held for four weekends consecutively, with the last game staged on 5th December. No venue has been unveiled yet, though the schedule will be ratified next month. Nonetheless, several countries have been considered to host, including New Zealand, for their success in containing the pandemic in the country.
Georgia was also considered for hosting due to their efforts to reach the quarter-finals during the World Cup last year. However, Japan is considered as the greater commercial attraction as the unions are in dire need of revenue. That might come off as a disadvantage for Fiji, considering that a good number of their players are based in England.
There are no official announcements on whether the games will be staged behind closed doors, or fans will be allowed to attend. Currently, not many countries are allowing fans to attend games in stadiums, though France, Italy, Ireland and England expect fans to move back to watch games in stadiums by October. However, Wales aren’t expecting fans to be back in stadiums until next year. Additionally, the stadiums will only allow limited fans.
