After the longest break comes the longest season, touch wood. Or, put another way, never mind the quality, just feel the quantity, as rugby’s various stakeholders seek to cram in as much of the 2019-20 finale as possible while creating temporary solutions for some of the 2020-21 campaign.
However, shoehorning in the Pro14/Premiership/European finales to the 2019-20 season between August and mid-October, and especially scheduling the four postponed 2020 Six Nations games at the end of October, was financially essential for all concerned.
So too is a one-off, eight nations competition in Europe run off over four weeks in November/December and an abbreviated Rugby Championship played entirely in New Zealand in the same period.
The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in teams missing out on both the end-of-season summer tours by the northern hemisphere countries and the end-of-year return tours by the southern hemisphere countries.
As a result of the extension of the Test window, something has to give, and the provinces, regions and clubs will be stretched by the additional international demands. For example, Ireland and Italy are now each playing six Tests before Christmas instead of three, while Leinster and Ulster could have anything up to five knockout matches (including three in the Champions Cup) where before there would only have been two European pool matches before December.
This could reach its zenith on the week of the Champions Cup final, due to take place on the weekend of October 16th, which will be a week before Ireland play their final two 2020 Six Nations games at home to Italy and away to France back to back. That could be particularly challenging for Andy Farrell and his coaching staff.
After the Italian and French games, there will be then a week's respite before four consecutive Tests as part of the eight nations tournament, with Ireland set to play Wales and Fiji at home either side of England at Twickenham, before hosting their concluding play-off game against whichever team finishes in the same position from the other group containing France, Scotland, Italy and Japan.
Champions Cup
Nor does it let up there. Within a week of the December 5th Test match play-offs, the first round of the 2020-21 Champions Cup is scheduled to begin.
The stakeholders in the latter tournament will almost certainly agree to a one-off, expanded 24-team tournament which will also take up eight weeks instead of the customary nine. The 24 will be divided into eight pools of three, each featuring one team each from the Pro14, the Top 14 and the Premiership. The 24 teams will each play four matches, two at home and two away, but not against teams from the same pool.
This plan will ensure all 24 are active each weekend. How this will actually work will be hard to understand, never mind explain, and is liable to be a dog’s dinner of a competition. One redeeming feature is that the eight pool winners will, most probably, meet in two-legged quarter-finals.
The option of two-legged semi-finals is also being explored, but it would make more sense to generate more income across two-legged quarter-finals, thus ensuring all eight pool winners get a lucrative quarter-final game at home.
Meanwhile, the “six plus Japan and Fiji” eight nations model will probably be a poor substitute for the traditional November window as well, all the more so with just some or no spectators present, but, likewise, it’s a case of needs must.
The proposed “draw” looks lopsided, what with the Six Nations champions for the past nine seasons in one group while the other has every Wooden Spoonist since 2003, although admittedly Italy harvested 11 of those unwanted accolades in the last 16 completed tournaments.
Clearly though, one of the purposes of the exercise was to ensure no repetition of the four rearranged games from the 2020 Six Nations – and so Ireland have been kept apart from Italy and France, as have England from Italy and Wales from Scotland.
Close proximity
Another issue behind the draw was geography. Ireland, England and Wales are all in close proximity to each other, and presumably the Fijian squad will be based in the greater London area. Likewise, France and Italy are neighbours and the Japanese squad will presumably be based in France, given so many of their players ply their trade in the Top 14.
There are many appealing aspects to having Japan involved after the huge success of the 2019 World Cup, and while the timing of the pandemic scuppered much of the 2019-20 season and several investment and broadcasting deals which were in the pipeline, at least that tournament was completed.
For starters, having Japan involved capitalises upon the Brave Blossoms’ breakthrough performance in the World Cup, not the least of which is bringing the lucrative Japanese television market into broadcasting deals after the unprecedented audience figures achieved in the host nation during the tournament.
The Japanese rights-holders for the 2019 World Cup were a mix of free-to-air and paid TV, including Nippon TV, NHK and J Sports, the leading sports broadcasters in the country.
Japan's opening World Cup match against Russia attracted a peak audience at home of 26 million, eclipsing the previous domestic TV record, which was for their game against Samoa in the 2015 World Cup. Their victory over Ireland drew an audience of 29.5 million, while the dramatic endgame of their win over Samoa attracted a peak of 47 million, and their Pool A decider against Scotland, which went ahead just hours after Typhoon Hagibis had passed through the country, was watched by a record peak domestic rugby TV audience of 54.8 million – more than watched the Fifa 2002 World Cup final in the country.
Then of course, there is a full 2021 Six Nations to go ahead as scheduled next February and March, meaning Ireland will play 11 internationals this season. In addition, as things stand a two-match end-of-season tour to the Pacific Islands has also been provisionally agreed.
As well as this, if Leinster were to emulate their achievements in each of the last two completed seasons, 2017-18 and 2018-19, in reaching the finals of the Champions Cup and Pro14, they would have potentially 11 knockout matches in the two tournaments between September and May next year.
Throw in four Champions Cup pool matches, and for those playing regular Test rugby, that doesn’t leave much room for anything else.
Non-stop rugby
It could be worse. Not so long ago Johnny Sexton was speculating that the players could have been looking at a 16-month season. Now it's more a case of a 16-month season being run off over 12 months of non-stop rugby, albeit with the constant threat of a Covid-19 spike or outbreaks of clusters in any of the rugby-playing countries concerned.
But, if things proceed as hoped, the provinces will already be planning for such an end, and one imagines there will be more game time than is normally the case not only for younger contracted players but for academy players too and the last two crops of Irish U20 players.
As things stand, the 2021 Champions Cup final in Marseille has been earmarked for May 22nd next year, which will lead into the final round of Pro14 fixtures and then the three play-off rounds on successive weekends.
Unlike their Premiership Rugby counterparts, the Pro14 organisers have agreed to bring forward next season's final to Saturday, June 19th. This is to facilitate the British and Irish Lions, whose first tour game in South Africa is scheduled to take place against the Stormers in Cape Town a fortnight later on July 3rd.
The three-Test series concludes in Johannesburg on August 7th, a full 50 weeks on from the resumption of the Pro14 next month.
Buckle up, it’s shaping up to be an endurance ride.
How the 2020 end-of-year fixture list is shaping up
Friday, August 21st: Pro14 Round 14 – Benetton Rugby v Zebre, Stadio Monigo, Treviso (8pm local time/7pm Irish)
Saturday, August 22nd: Pro14 Round 14 – Scarlets v Cardiff Blues, Parc y Scarlets (3pm); Edinburgh v Glasgow Warriors, Murrayfield (5.15pm); Leinster v Munster, Aviva Stadium (7.35pm)
Sunday, August 23rd: Pro14 Round 14 – Ospreys v Dragons, Liberty Stadium (2.15pm); Connacht v Ulster, Aviva Stadium
Friday, August 28th: Pro14 Round 15 – Glasgow Warriors v Edinburgh, Murrayfield (7.35pm)
Saturday, August 29th: Pro14 Round 15 – Dragons v Scarlets, Rodney Parade (3.15pm); Ulster v Leinster, Aviva Stadium (7.35pm)
Sunday, August 30th: Pro14 Round 15 – Munster v Connacht, Aviva Stadium (3pm); Cardiff Blues v Ospreys, Rodney Parade (5pm); Zebre v Benetton Rugby, Stadio Lanfranchi (8pm local time/7pm Irish)
September 4th/5th/6th: Pro14 semi-finals
Saturday, September 12th: Pro14 final
Saturday, September 19th: Champions Cup quarter-finals – Leinster v Saracens, Aviva Stadium (3pm); ASM Clermont Auvergne v Racing 92, Stade Marcel-Michelin (6.30pm local time/5.30pm Irish)
Sunday, September 20th: Champions Cup quarter-finals – Toulouse v Ulster, Le Stadium (1.30pm local time/12.30pm Irish); Exeter Chiefs v Northampton Saints, Sandy Park (5.30pm)
September 25th/26th/27th: Champions Cup semi-finals
October 2nd/3rd/4th: 2020-21 Pro14 first round
October 9th/10th/11th: 2020-21 Pro14 second round
October 16th/17th/18th: Champions Cup final (venue TBC)
Saturday, October 24th: 2020 Six Nations – Ireland v Italy, Aviva Stadium. Premiership final, Twickenham
Sunday, October 25th: England v Barbarians, Twickenham
Saturday, October 31st: 2020 Six Nations – Wales v Scotland (TBA); Italy v England, Stadio Olimpico; France v Ireland, Stade de France
November 7th-8th: International rest week
November 7th-December 12th: Rugby Championship (New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina) to be held in New Zealand
November 14th/15th: Ireland v Wales, Aviva Stadium (TBC)
November 21st/22nd: England v Ireland, Twickenham (TBC)
November 28th/29th: Ireland v Fiji, Aviva Stadium (TBC)
Saturday, December 5th: Play-off match, Ireland v one of France/Italy/Scotland/Japan, Aviva Stadium
December 11th/12th/13th: First round of the 2020-21 Champions Cup
December 18th/19th/20th: Second round of the 2020-21 Champions Cup
