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Report: All Blacks end of year tour in major doubt after plans for new Northern tournament
By Online Editors
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.
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.
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.
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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Latest Comments
The purpose of the MP team is surely to benefit all parties involved.
This includes fostering a Pasifika base that can strengthen Tonga, Samoa, and the All Blacks. These goals are not mutually exclusive.
The claim of a "real purpose" seems like subterfuge for a self-centered agenda—insisting that NZ Rugby should bear all the sacrifices and reap none of the benefits.
If Seilala Mapusua believed the idea was different—thankfully, we don't live in a world where personal opinions override mutually agreed legal and policy commitments.
NZ Rugby is not a charitable organization. Its primary purpose should always be to benefit NZ Rugby. If it can assist others, that’s great, but it should not be held hostage to external demands.
Also, this is international rugby, not interracial rugby. The players in question are NZ-born, bred, and developed. The notion that NZ Rugby would agree to refrain from selecting NZ players who wish to represent New Zealand is not worth serious consideration.
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