Six Nations announce outstanding fixtures in both Championships

THE men’s Six Nations Championship will conclude, as expected, with a triple-header of games on 31 October including Scotland’s away fixture with Wales, but the women’s tournament will not be completed until Scotland and Italy play their outstanding game in early December. 

The Championship for both women and men will resume on 24 October, when Philip Doyle’s Scotland squad meet France at home and Ireland play Italy in both competitions. The following Saturday, Gregor Townsend’s squad will play Wales in a match which will kick off at 2.15pm at a venue yet to be decided but almost certainly in London. The venue for the women’s international between Wales and Scotland on the same afternoon has also yet to be decided.

After those two weekends, the Italy-Scotland women’s match will be the only remaining game, and both teams will have to wait until the end of the Test window to play it. Further details about that and the other games in the women’s tournament also await confirmation. It has been decided that no attempt will be made to play the remaining games in the Under-20 Championship, and that there will no winner of it. 

Announcing the fixtures, Six Nations also confirmed that an eight-team men’s tournament will take place in November and early December “involving the Six Nations unions and two other international teams”. They have yet to confirm, however, that those teams will be Japan and Fiji, and that the tournament will have a two-pool format in which the Japanese and Scotland will be joined in one pool by France and Italy.

“We are absolutely thrilled to make this announcement today,” Six Nations chief executive Ben Morel said. “Whilst the past few months have been extremely challenging, we have always remained hopeful of concluding this year’s tournament and we are really looking forward to the final games in the Men’s and Women’s Championships. There is still so much to play for, and we are hugely excited for what lies ahead.