In fact, the first five rounds of the new Championship campaign will take place during the World Cup in an attempt to avoid a clash with the Guinness Six Nations.

The drive to stay clear of international weekends once the new season begins means there will only be one weekend in a direct overlap with the Guinness Six Nations – February 22.

There will be three rounds of the Guinness PRO14 before a break for the weekend of the World Cup quarter-finals on October 19-20, with round four resuming on October 25.

A further round of games will take place the following weekend when the World Cup final takes place on November 2, while there will be another series of matches a week later.

WORLD RUGBY CALENDAR CHANGES

Among the primary initiatives announced by World Rugby to commence from 2020 is bringing the start date of the World Cup forward to the second week in September.

This will facilitate a permanent and rigid place in the global calendar, while tours by northern hemisphere countries to their southern rivals will no longer take place in June.

Instead they will be pushed back to the first three weeks in July, enabling the Super Rugby season to run uninterrupted and to optimise Test preparation for all unions.

The November window will also move forward one week, taking place over the first three weekends of the month, with these optimised windows expected to aid the development of the club game.