RFU hopes for cut in Twickenham distancing to one metre and £12m boost | Rugby

The Rugby Football Union is to lobby the government to reduce its physical distancing rule from two metres to one, calculating that the current stipulation would cost it £12m if crowds were allowed back for the four November internationals at Twickenham.

Britain is one of the few countries – Spain and Ireland are others – to insist on two metres as part of the measures of stop the spread of Covid-19, but the RFU chief executive, Bill Sweeney, reckons it would reduce the capacity at Twickenham to less than 10,000.

“If you are using two metres, you are talking about a four-metre distanced safe space,” he said. “With one, it is one metre all round which has the effect of increasing capacity fourfold. If you use two metres in an 80,000-seater stadium and factor in traffic flow, such as someone wanting to use the toilet without going past someone and touching them, it reduces your capacity to between 9,000 and 9,500.

“I was surprised, not thinking it would be that low. With one metre, which is the World Health Organization’s guidance, you get close to 40,000, and we would like it to come down to that by the autumn. We would not increase the stadium capacity at the risk of safety, nor do anything contrary to government guidelines, but we want clarity on whether the two-metre rule is absolutely essential or is one metre possible.”

England are scheduled to play New Zealand, Argentina, Tonga and Australia. Asked what the difference would be in financial terms, Sweeney replied: “It depends on who you have coming and ticket pricing. It is probably worth in the region of £3m a game and I believe we would be able to open catering facilities, as long as they were out of doors.”

It is a time when even the richest governing body in the world needs every pound it can harvest once rugby resumes. The financial stress felt by every union and professional club throughout the game has focused efforts on organising a global calendar to align the seasons in the north and south and remove overlaps between Test and club rugby.

More progress has been made in the past two months than in the previous 20 years and a working group, which includes Sweeney among its six officials, has produced plans that could mean change coming as early as next season, including one that would shift the Six Nations to March and April and played at the same time as the Rugby Championship, with the professional leagues in Europe starting in January.

“The timing of the Six Nations is part of the conversation around the global calendar,” said Sweeney. “If agreement can be reached as part of finishing off the 2019-20 season and then moving into the new campaign and it was the one landed on by everybody, it would be possible. It has to be tailored to the needs of each individual union.”

It would mean professional rugby in Europe would be played through the summer months, with players resting in December, denying clubs Christmas takings. It would also mean the Lions…