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Entire July Test calendar scrapped due to Covid-19, including England's return to Japan

What would a regional trial match look like in England? (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

The summer’s rugby union international schedule – including England’s tour of Japan – has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. World Rugby announced on Friday that all fixtures in July would be called off due to Covid-19, meaning Eddie Jones’ men will not return to the scene of last year’s World Cup where they reached the final.

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The widespread postponements also mean Wales’ one-Test mission in Japan is also off, as are their two Tests in New Zealand, with Scotland’s trip to South Africa and New Zealand, and Ireland’s to Australia also removed from the schedule.

“While we are of course disappointed to have our two Test matches against Japan postponed, it’s the correct decision under the current circumstances,” said Jones.

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In a statement, the Rugby Football Union said all parties were working to try and find a way to fit July’s matches into a new-look international calendar for the rest of the year.

“All decision-making will be entirely contingent on national government travel, quarantine and health advice and important player welfare and hosting considerations in line with return-to-rugby guidance recently published by World Rugby,” it read.

In making the decision, World Rugby said: “The programme of international rugby matches scheduled for the 2020 July window has been postponed due to ongoing government and health agency Covid-19 directives.

“Extended travel and quarantine restrictions that apply to numerous countries, and concerns over adequate player preparation time, mean that any sort of cross-border international rugby competition cannot be hosted in July.”

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Scotland boss Gregor Townsend added: “It has been clear that the significant impact of Covid-19 across the world has meant international travel at this time was going to be very unlikely in the coming months and so it has proved. As a tour, it would have provided an excellent learning experience, but we fully understand the reasons why it can’t go ahead.”

Ireland performance director David Nucifora said: “While it is disappointing that the summer tour to Australia will not go ahead as scheduled, it will not be a surprise to many as it is clear that Covid-19 will have implications for our game for some time to come.”

 

 

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f
fl 1 hour ago
‘Props are awesome…so why don’t they win prizes?’

“The reason most props don’t last the whole game is that they expend proportionally more effort than players outside the front row. Should they be penalised for that?”

No, they don’t last the whole game because they are less fit than players outside the front row. I’d be interested to know if you’d apply this logic to other positions; do PSDT and Itoje regularly last longer than other players in their positions because they put in less effort?

None of this is about “penalising” props, its about being realistic about their impact on a game.


“While scrums are a small part of the game in terms of time spent in them, they have disproportionate impact. Dominant scrums win games; feeble ones lose them.”

Strength at the breakdown wins games. Good kicking wins games. Good handling wins games. Strong defence wins games. Good lineouts win games. Ultimately, I think that of all these things, the scrum is probably the least important, because it demonstrably doesn’t correlate very well with winning games. I don’t think Rugbypass will allow me to link articles, but if you google “HG Rugby Crowning the Best Scrum in Club Rugby” you’ll get a pretty convincing analysis that ranks Toulouse and Bordeaux outside of the 10 best club sides in the scrum - and ranks Leinster outside of the top 30.


“Or there’s Joe Marler’s epic performance in the Bristol v Quins 2021 Premiership Semi-Final, in which he finally left the pitch 15 minutes into extra time having signed off with a try saving tackle.”

Yeah - that’s a good example actually, but it kind of disproves your point. Marler played 95 minutes, which is unheard of for a prop.


“Maybe we need a dedicated Hall of Fame with entry only for props, and voted for only by props.”

Well we have the World Rugby XV of the year. Its only been going for a few years, but in time it’ll be a pretty good record of who are perceived as best props - although the lack of interest most people have in scrums means that perception of who the best props are doesn’t always match reality (e.g. Tadgh Furlong was great in 2018 - but was he really the best tighthead in the world in 2021, 2022, & 2023?).

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