England set to play in new international tournament to replace original autumn Tests schedule

England’s autumn schedule is taking shaping with the RFU lining up matches against Wales, Ireland and Fiji at Twickenham as part of a revamped Test competition.

Eddie Jones’ men were set to take on New Zealand, Argentina, Australia and Tonga in November, but due to the coronavirus crisis cross-hemisphere matches are not possible.

So instead a new tournament will be created made up of the Six Nations teams plus two invited guests – expected to be Fiji and Japan.

England are set to play in a new autumn international tournament to make up for their original scrapped schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic

England had been due to face New Zealand but that has been cancelled as a result of Covid-19

Instead England will be in a pool that includes rivals Wales in this new autumn tournament

The teams will be split into two pools of four and play their opponents once each with the tournament culminating in play-off games between the first, second, third and fourth-placed sides in each group.

Sportsmail understands England’s pool will contain Wales, Ireland and Fiji, and the other will consist of France, Scotland, Italy and Japan.

Twickenham will host at least two of England’s home games, plus the ‘final’, which will be a significant boost to the RFU.

Earlier in lockdown the Union’s CEO Bill Sweeney said the RFU would lose out on £122million if no Twickenham games were possible this year.

Whether fans will be allowed in to the games remains in the hands of the government, but with trial events underway in cricket and soon to follow in snooker and at Glorious Goodwood, English rugby chiefs will hope their lobbying to permit at least some supporters into grounds will be successful.

Jones will prepare his side for a bumper autumn of fixtures now. As Sportsmail revealed earlier this month England will face the Barbarians on October 25 – the day after the rescheduled Premiership Final.

The following week England will face Italy to conclude the 2020 Six Nations, knowing a win should secure them a belated title, and then there will be a week off on the weekend of November 7.

After that the new autumn tournament will kick into gear on the weekends of November 14, 21 and 28 with the final games on the weekend of December 5.

England head coach Eddie Jones can now prepare his side for six fixtures this autumn

It means Premiership clubs will be without their internationals for three weeks at the start of their new 2020-21 season, which they have announced will begin on November 20.

If government advice in Wales remains different to that in England then Welsh home matches in this new competition will be played in the London area.

It is expected that Ireland will host two home games in Dublin – against Wales and Fiji – but will travel to Twickenham to play England.

If England finish top of the initial pool stage they could face France in a grandstand ‘final’; however, wherever they stand they will play another game against a team from the other pool who finished in the same pool position.

Meanwhile Exeter Chiefs will officially review their name, branding and ‘Big Chief’ mascot at a board meeting on Wednesday.

Fiji (pictured) are set to participate in this tournament alongside Japan

The Premiership’s top side are under pressure from campaigners to ditch their links to Native American imagery – who say it is ‘racist and offensive’ – although there is another petition for the symbols to stay.

In the NFL Washington Redskins retired their badge and changed their name to the Washington Football Team after pressure from indigenous groups.

Chiefs directors will be presented with dossiers on the options on Wednesday.

Finally, the Lions will wear Vodafone branding on their shirts on their tour to South Africa next summer, having secured a multi-million pound sponsorship deal.

It is understood the telecommunications giant have paid a similar amount to the £6.25m Standard Life Investments shelled out in 2017 to be the Lions’ main shirt sponsor.