“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,” World Rugby said in a statement.
“Our big question mark is October-November,” Laporte added. “Will the northern hemisphere be able to go to the southern hemisphere and vice versa? We’ll really know in mid-June or late June. But it seems compromised.” The northern hemisphere Six Nations tournament remains unfinished while the southern hemisphere nations have concerns about the four-nation Rugby Championship, featuring New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Argentina, which is due to start in August.Laporte is campaigning for a longer international window in the autumn: “We want to go to the southern hemisphere in October and have them come to the north in November, replacing July with October.
“When you see the financial difficulties these federations are in, you have to help them. Afterwards, if the conditions forbid us to go, it’s something else. And I understand the clubs who need to do play their competitions but we’ll have to find common ground. We’ll be taking decisions at the end of June.”