RFU chief warns rugby union could be dramatically altered by coronavirus

The dynamics of international rugby could be permanently altered by the coronavirus pandemic, RFU chief-executive Bill Sweeney has warned.

England have extended the contract of head coach Eddie Jones until the end of the 2023 World Cup, a two-year increase on his existing deal, but on almost every other issue there is a profound uncertainty.

The finances of grassroots, professional and even international teams are likely to be stretched to breaking point by the lengthy pause caused by the pandemic and Sweeney admitted the situation might be showing up some harsh realities about the basic infrastructure of the game at large.

And when things return to a form of normality, there is a chance of considerable changes to the status quo.

"What's come out of this is an agreement between all the unions - north and south (hemisphere) and World Rugby to really start with a blank sheet of paper," said Sweeney.

"When you have a crisis of this nature and scale - and I don't think anybody could have predicted anything of this magnitude - it does highlight where you have fault lines and it does highlight where you can have some weaknesses. Some of those are being exposed now.

"A lot of conversations now are around 'how do we come out of this and emerge stronger?'. We don't want to just come back in and carry on with the same model, that just repeats the errors and the difficulties of the past, so there's a lot of really positive, productive conversations about how do we come out of this with rugby union in a better place, both domestically and also internationally.

"There's a whole list of things that we need to be looking at and working more closely together so that we can all realise the benefit. Those conversations have already kicked off and they kicked off fairly quickly."

Sweeney admitted the crisis could expose harsh realities about the basic infrastructure of the game at large.

A more immediate issue surrounds England's next planned assignment, a scheduled Test tour of Japan in July.

With the Tokyo Olympics pushed back until 2021 it is now highly unlikely that the tour will go ahead, with a final decision expected to be announced by the end of April.

And while the exact damage caused by the length of the hiatus and its eventual impact remain unknown, the sport could be irrevocably altered.

"I wouldn't say absolutely the tours are off. We've set ourselves a deadline, with World Rugby, for the end of April to make a decision on that one," Sweeney said.

"You'd probably say (postponement) is a strong possibility but it's slightly different to the Olympics. With the Olympics you've got, say, 11,000 athletes coming into Tokyo and different parts of the world at different stages in the crisis.

"With a tour you've got two countries involved so it's a bit more dependent on the state of Japan and the state of England.

"But these are exceptional times and there are God knows how many contingency plans should the July tours be off.

"It would be premature to say there are any favourite options among those but there are a number we are looking at."

Sweeney and his executive team, along with Jones, have already taken pay cuts of 25 per cent in response to anticipated losses of up to £50m at Twickenham.

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He revealed more than 300 employees had been placed on furlough, with the potential for more to come.

"We're heavily involved in that furlough programme. We've got 540-odd employees, 340 of those are now currently on furlough so that's 62 per cent of the organisation," he said.

"We'll re-evaluate that, probably in a week or two weeks' time, and that furlough number may go up slightly."