Six Nations organisers planning second tournament later this year

Six Nations organisers are reportedly planning on contingency plans to conduct a second tournament later in 2020.

The Rugby Unions of England, Wales, France, Ireland, Italy, and Scotland are set to hold meetings this week. The discussions are likely to include the idea of organising a full-fledged 15-match, eight-week tournament. If things go according to plan, the tournament could potentially be held in October and November this year.

According to the reports, countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina could withdraw from the tournament since the current COVID-19 pandemic scenarios could prevent these teams from travelling to Europe in November.

According to Reuters, a Rugby Union official said, "Some people will no doubt throw their hands up in the air and accuse us of devaluing the tournament, but what do they expect us to do? In such exceptional circumstances, we would be failing in our duty to the game as a whole if we didn't have a contingency plan."

Similar to all other major sports around the globe, rugby too, has been hit hard by the pandemic. Earlier this year, four matches in the Six Nations championship were postponed in an attempt to contain the further spread of the novel coronavirus.

Rugby's global governing body, "World Rugby" has already created a relief fund worth around $100 million in order to assist the rugby unions to the best possible extent to cope with the catastrophic financial impact of the pandemic.

The report further added that the second Six Nations event later this year has the potential of generating more than $123.31 million (100 million GBP) in terms of ticket sales.

The coronavirus pandemic has already killed more than 179,000 people worldwide. Over 2.5 million people have been infected by the deadly virus. About one-third of the global coronavirus cases have emerged from the United States of America alone.

Among European countries, Spain, Italy, and France are the worst-hit countries. Over 550,000 people living in these countries have contracted the disease. While Italy has so far registered over 24,600 COVID-19 related deaths, the tally for Spain and France stands at 21,700+ and 20,700+, respectively.

The pandemic is showing no signs of slowing down. Amidst such an emergency, it remains to be seen whether and how a second Six Nations Rugby tournament could be organised this year.