Breaking new ground.

England will make history in 2020, when they embark on their first ever tour of Japan, according to a report in The Times this morning.

The tour will take place just one year after Japan host the Rugby World Cup. England have only played Japan once, in the 1987 Rugby World Cup, and have never toured the country before.

If the present plans are finalised, their 2020 summer will be a two-Test tour of the nation that England boss Eddie Jones successfully led in the 2015 World Cup.

Under the old rotation system, England would have been expecting to tour New Zealand in 2020. However, tier-one countries are now obliged to tour tier-two nations and this is England’s first commitment to this new arrangement.