Six Nations: Tournament preparing to play games behind closed doors
Organisers of rugby’s Six Nations are preparing plans which could see games played behind closed doors if restrictions remain unchanged.
With current Covid-19 restrictions banning fans completely in Wales, setting a 500-person cap in Scotland and a 5,000 limit in Ireland and France, there could be implications for the tournament.
England have not yet put limits on crowd numbers, and the desired outcome would be full grounds in each of the six countries.
With the tournament beginning in February, the Six Nations organisers are investigating whether restrictions are likely to be restricted, according to the Telegraph.
It is also understood that the likelihood of matches being delayed to allow for capacity crowds is unlikely due to the congested rugby calendar.
Fans in English venues are currently required to show a negative lateral flow test or a Covid-19 passport.
Last year’s competition took place behind closed doors and fans only began returning to stadia in Europe during the summer fixtures.
Teams were able to play in front of capacity crowds for autumn’s November fixtures.
On 27 December, 75,000 fans watched Harlequins’ Big Game at Twickenham while matches elsewhere in Europe saw heavily restricted crowd numbers.
Rugby is also facing a backlog of domestic fixtures at the moment with the United Rugby Championship and European cups postponing a flurry of fixtures over Covid-19 and France’s restrictions on travel to Britain.
Two week’s worth of European games are set to go ahead from 14 January.