Premiership Rugby is considering a raft of measures to help complete the season, including playing games behind closed doors, staging multiple matches at single venues and scheduling midweek fixtures.

Rugby’s top tier had been criticised for not being as proactive compared to other major sports in addressing the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike the leagues run by the Rugby Football Union, including the Championship and the women’s Premier 15s, which have been cancelled, the Premiership is still suspended until at least April 24.

In light of this suspension, Harlequins became the latest club to introduce pay cuts of 25 per cent. The announcement followed others by Wasps, Worcester, Gloucester and Saracens. With nine rounds of the regular season remaining, as well as play-off semi-finals and a Twickenham final, Darren Childs, Premiership Rugby’s chief executive, conceded that summer rugby was “inevitable” if the competition was to have any chance of a successful conclusion. Premiership Rugby currently does not intend to reschedule the start of next season.

“There is no plan to delay the start of the 2020-21 season. These things might come close to each other this year, but I think it is a unique year and that may be one of the scenarios we have to run,” Childs said.

With England’s two-Test tour of Japan in July looking increasingly unlikely, it would mean there would be increased player availability over the summer.

Despite the Premiership’s initial reticence to publicly discuss plans regarding the completion of the season, Childs hopes that the Premiership will “hopefully be the first sport back on television, whether that is in a closed stadium or an open stadium”.