England's July tour of Japan could be moved to October - RFU Chief

Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney said the board is planning to reschedule England's tour of Japan in July to October after the ongoing season is hampered by the pandemic coronavirus.

The outbreak of the coronavirus has already postponed the final round of this year's Six Nations tournament while the RFU has announced that the remainder of the 2019/20 domestic season except the Premiership has been cancelled.

“We could possibly go there in October,” Sweeney told BBC.

“That’s one option, because obviously they’d rather host, they make more money when they host, and we’d come back and play our autumns (internationals).”

England are set to face New Zealand, Argentina, Tonga and Australia in the November series and Sweeney said the board is considering all options to complete the postponed Six Nations game and the two-game series against Japan along with it.

“We’d want to do something to fill our gap so we’re looking at a range of different contingencies,” Sweeney added.

“An obvious one is: Do you stage a Six Nations in the autumn but link it into the Six Nations the next year, and you have a home and away series?”