The Six Nations have reportedly unanimously thrown their support behind the idea to have the Springboks participate in the upcoming Eight Nations competition.
The Eight Nations tournament, with the teams divided into two pools, is set to start on 14 November following the conclusion of this season’s delayed Six Nations.
Initially, the contesting teams were the Six Nations sides along with Japan and Fiji, because New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Argentina were not available to participate in the competition, as they are provisionally scheduled to play the delayed Rugby Championship in November and December.
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But since Japan’s abrupt withdrawal from the eight-team tournament, organisers are rumoured to have entered into negotiations with SA Rugby to have the Springboks come on board in terms of participation.
According to a report in The Rugby Paper, the Rugby Football Union, Welsh Rugby Union, Scottish Rugby, Irish Rugby Football Union, the Italian Rugby Federation and the French Rugby Federation have unanimously thrown its support behind South Africa replacing Japan in the competition and are said to have joined forced in an attempt the bring the Boks to the fold with immediate effect.
‘South Africa want to play here this autumn,’ a source told The Rugby Paper. ‘They see it as the chance of a lifetime to get into the Six Nations, a no-brainer.
‘Bernard Laporte is therefore pushing against an open door. It’s being driven behind the scenes by England. They and Wales see that it makes commercial sense. The RFU are very confident that by November the Government will have eased restrictions on crowds to allow 30,000 at Twickenham.’
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