Start date for rescheduled Women's Six Nations yet to be confirmed

[ASFN Admin]

An announcement on when the rescheduled Women’s Six Nations will be played has been delayed until early next month, but organisers have indicated it will be played in the late spring. Despite Six Nations chief executive Ben Morel reiterating that the Women’s Six Nations was a “priority”, details about the future of the championship, including a UK broadcast partner and title sponsor, remain to be confirmed. The 2021 edition holds extra importance as it will be used to help decide the final qualifying spots for the World Cup, which is due to kick off in New Zealand in September. Scotland, Ireland and Italy are all yet to qualify. The tournament has been played on the same weekends as the men’s competition, with fixtures aligned, since 2007, but this year’s edition was postponed due to the pandemic. “Obviously, it [the postponement] was a very hard decision but it was mainly driven by the amateur status of many of our athletes and it was definitely the reasonable route to take,” said Morel. “We’re definitely looking at a later window in the spring, we are having to factor multiple elements in. It’s a Rugby World Cup year, some of our unions are still in the process of qualifying for that event, and others are eager to prepare appropriately for the event so we are in the process of finalising that. “I know one of the possibilities is definitely in order for the women’s tournament to be in the limelight. We are strongly thinking about moving it to a specific window and that is one of the working assumptions that we have for the future. “I’m a strong believer that the specific window would enhance and give appropriate visibility. “At the same time, not by design, but we are going to be in a position to test that this year because of the rescheduling of the tournament and I’m going to be looking at that carefully to see what learning we can get.” As far back as Dec 2018, organisers had stated their desire for the women’s Six Nations to have its “own identity” through a separate title sponsor and this was again reiterated by Morel. “It’s not a case of finding a partner for the sake of finding a partner, it’s finding the right one that will help elevate the Championship for many years to come,” said Morel. “There’s a bit more work to be done there, but we are very confident in the fantastic tournament that the Women’s Six Nations represents and the fantastic growth opportunity it is.”

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