United Rugby Championship matches to be played in Europe until end of 2021

The organisers of the United Rugby Championship have confirmed that the tournament will continue to be played in Europe for the remainder of the year.

Scarlets, Cardiff, Munster and Zebre were initially scheduled to head to South Africa for the end of the year tour but they will be playing their matches in Europe despite the fact that South Africa has been removed from the red list by UK this week.

South Africa chief executive Martin Anayi said despite the government decision to remove South Africa from red list, they will stick to the original plan.

"It's great that they're off [the red list] - it's likely that it'll allow us go back to South Africa in the second half of the season and we'll keep the games where they're going to be in Europe for rounds six and seven," he told Scrum V.

The competition has four South African clubs Cell C Sharks, DHL Stormers, Emirates Lions and Vodacom Bulls joining the regular Pro14 teams and will have 144 regular season matches spread across 18 rounds.