One cannot underestimate the power of the “shirt-seller”. A shirt-seller is a soccer analogy used to describe the jerseys of players that sell well to fans. European soccer teams will target players from Asia not just for their ability, but also their commercial appeal. In the post-COVID-19 world, the Six Nations Championship are adopting that strategy and have added Japan and Fiji in an expanded Eight-Nations competition.

The proposal for the U.K. based tournament will see the teams split into two pools with England set to be grouped with Wales, Ireland and Fiji. The second group to be made up of Japan, Italy, Scotland and France.

Japan successfully hosted the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and the Japanese Blossoms have been given top tier status based on their performance at the tournament.

England has been leading the charge to revamp the Autumn schedule of the Six Nations competition in the wake of the financial implications of the pandemic across Europe. England were originally scheduled to go up against Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Tonga in November. The alternative is a new competition with Jiji and Japan tipped to be invited to the party for the first time.