SevensPhD
Chris McKivat (8)
I was in Fiji over the weekend and there was a story in the paper about Fiji being in with a shot of hosting a leg of the IRB tour. Would be interesting if it was to fill the spot of the South America leg that never happened or take over from another tournament in the area, if the second option then an Australian leg may be in trouble.
The IRB Series will stay at 9 teams this year, and possibly go to 10 teams with Argentina next season. No other stops will be added until after the Olympic qualifying season of 2014/15. But the series could undergo drastic changes in 2015/16.
Fiji is bidding to host an IRB stop. So is Kenya, Wales and Singapore, and probably a few others. Australia will most likely not lose their stop, however it is probable that the Gold Coast will lose it if low attendance continues.
I first heard that the Australia leg was moving to February to pair with the NZ leg (for player welfare reasons, and it is a logical pairing). That was part of the rationale behind moving the USA leg to 24-26 of January in order to pair with Argentina in mid-January starting next season.
Now I hear that Fiji may be paired with the Aussie leg and remain in October. But Fiji may also pair with Singapore in late Oct/early Nov to start the season.
Scotland will likely lose their stop due to even lower attendance than GC.
Ideally:
Fiji-Singapore in Oct/Nov
Dubai-South Africa in Nov-Dec (maybe Kenya as a third)
Argentina-USA in Jan
NZ-Aus in Feb
Japan-Hong Kong in Mar
Possibly a new leg within Europe (France, Russia, Germany, Spain) and Kenya in Apr
London-?? (Probably Wales, but maybe Euro) in May