Sydney (AFP)

Four Australian Super Rugby teams could resume competition in early July with the easing of restrictions related to the coronavirus, officials said.

The Sanzaar, which heads the competition, had suspended meetings in mid-March after the borders were closed due to the pandemic of Covid-19 disease.

According to the official website rugby.com.au, two scenarios have been established: the first table on a championship with five teams (the four Australian Super Rugby teams, the Queensland Reds, the NSW Waratahs, the ACT Brumbies and the Melbourne Rebels , plus Western Force), and the second provides for the participation of these five teams plus that of the Japanese Sunwolves.

A sports official for the federation, Ben Whitaker, said the Brumbies and Waratahs would resume training this week with reduced numbers.

All teams are expected to be back in full formation by June 8, and competition could resume four weeks later.

"The draw we are considering is a 12-week competition" with "10 weeks of regular season games and depending on the number of teams," he said.

The New Zealand rugby federation said Monday that the championship in place of Super Rugby would begin on June 13.

The Western Force, based in Perth (western Australia), had been excluded from Super Rugby, the championship of the provinces of the southern hemisphere, at the end of the 2017 season.

She is now participating in the National Rugby Championship and a fast rugby competition, launched in 2019 in the Asia-Pacific region by the Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest.

The Japanese team of Sunwolves, which represents Tokyo, will disappear from Super Rugby at the end of the 2020 season. Its poor performances faced with the high cost of its participation were right of the idea.

While having the Western Force participate in a national competition would be relatively simple, that of the Sunwolves seems much more difficult because of the border closures.

"We are working closely with the government on the possibility of doing so" one last time in 2020, said Whitaker, who proposed that the Japanese team move to Queensland or New South Wales to the duration of the competition.

© 2020 AFP