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Report: All Blacks end of year tour in major doubt after plans for new Northern tournament

By Online Editors
(Photo by Lynne Cameron/Getty Images)

The All Blacks‘ end of year tour looks to be in major doubt with a new eight-team tournament reportedly being planned featuring the Six Nations teams as well as guest countries Japan and Fiji to be played in November.

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The All Blacks were set to face England in London on November 7 followed by games against Wales and then Scotland, but the coronavirus pandemic has cast doubt over scheduled rugby tours.

According to The Telegraph, Japan and Fiji are expected to join the Six Nations sides in a new eight-team tournament to be played in November and December.

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A World Rugby council meeting to vote on allowing international rugby to continue, which was initially scheduled for today, was postponed until mid-July.

However, The Telegraph reports “the most likely option” was that the new eight-team tournament would replace scheduled games against southern hemisphere sides due to Covid-19 restrictions and the delayed start of the Rugby Championship.

The new-look tournament would reportedly consist of two pools of four to be played in November, with winners of each pool meeting in a final on December 5.

The tournament would be another blow to the All Blacks and Ian Foster’s first year in charge, with home tests against Wales and Scotland in July already scrapped due to the pandemic, while the future of the Rugby Championship remains up in the air.

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The most likely tests to happen this year looks to be an increased Bledisloe Cup series against Australia, but hopes of a trans-Tasman bubble has also been in doubt because of increased infections in Melbourne and Victoria.

World Rugby’s solution to the international calendar issue has been met with opposition from French and English clubs who objected to proposals to move the July window for tests to October to create a new international series.

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Bull Shark 41 minutes ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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