SANZAAR CEO Brendan Morris has acknowledged the logistical pressures shaping the inaugural Nations Championship's hosting arrangements, confirming that neutral venues are a deliberate design feature rather than an anomaly.
Speaking in Tokyo ahead of Japan's clash with France on Saturday, Morris described the 12-team competition's structure as complex, with tight three-week windows forcing organisers to balance high-performance demands against commercial requirements.
"There are some logistical challenges that are very real," Morris said. "To do that, a number of matches had to be located in neutral venues."
Fiji's schedule illustrates the point most starkly: they have played all three of their July home fixtures in the northern hemisphere — against Wales in Cardiff, England at Everton's Goodison Park in Liverpool, and Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday. Japan, meanwhile, hosted Ireland in Newcastle, Australia rather than on home soil.
Morris said the unions directly affected had been closely consulted and that player welfare was central to decision-making throughout the planning process.