Six Nations fixture postponements: The effect on Superbru

Yesterday, the IRFU officially announced that Ireland’s scheduled Round 4 Six Nations match against Italy would not be going ahead as planned due to fears about the coronavirus outbreak. It is currently unclear when this match will be rescheduled for, or even if it will be at all.

Since it is Italy that is currently suffering from a significant number of coronavirus cases, it is reasonable to assume that England’s match in Rome in Round 5 of the Six Nations is also likely to be postponed. Though this is yet to be confirmed, the adaptations we have made to our Six Nations tournaments at Superbru have been planned in a way that accounts for that possible postponement.

The effect of Six Nations postponements on Superbru:

Six Nations Predictor

GSP removed. Since Round 4 will now only be a two-fixture round, there will be no GSP awarded, as is the norm for Superbru rounds that contain less than 3 fixtures.

Just as we do for all of our other tournaments, the fixture has been marked ‘postponed’ and will be rearranged to a new date and round once announced (if soon enough*) or deleted from the tournament if the fixture is cancelled or arranged for a date that is too far away to be scheduled within our tournament.

Six Nations Fantasy

An increase to the permitted number of transfers and players allowed from a single team. Ireland v Italy has been removed from Round 4 of our fantasy game meaning both teams are on a ‘bye’. As a result, we have increased the permitted number of transfers from four to SIX and you are now allowed up to EIGHT players from a single team rather than six.

This is also the case for Round 5 of our fantasy game due to the assumption that Italy v England will also be postponed. Even if it isn’t, the increased transfers and team limit will still apply.

Six Nations Daily Fantasy

No changes required. Ireland v Italy will of course be removed from the round taking place on Saturday 7th March meaning England v Wales is now the only game taking place and brus will only be able to select players participating in that fixture.

*We are not expecting any postponed fixtures to be rescheduled in time to be included in our Six Nations tournaments. However, if time is found in the calendar and the fixtures are officially announced as being rescheduled for definite dates, we will make a decision on whether or not to include said fixtures in some or all of our tournaments following any announcements. This decision will factor in how far away the rescheduled dates are from Round 5.

There’s no perfect solution in situations such as this, particularly in our fantasy game, but as with every industry hit by the virus outbreak, it is what it is, and we hope you’ll agree that our approach is pragmatic. Our thoughts are with those affected by the virus.