Matt Shaw reporting that clubs are expected to vote through a proposal to start the season on weekend of 20/21 March.
22 game league season.Play every club once and 9 loop fixtures to be determined by league finishing positions in 2019.
Chall Cup,1895 Cup and Summer Bash all anticipated to still be included in revised fixture list.

Why have a cup nobody cares about and cut intothe league season?

Loop fixtures...

20th March still feels ambitious to me.

I can see that date slipping.

I suppose they'd be under fire if they didn't even attempt to develop a fixture structure and start date. But like people are saying, that may be optimistic.

does seem daft doesn't it. Dropping 1895 cup and summer bash this year would pretty much allow for a normal 26 game season playing everyone home and away. Maybe have to squeeze a couple of mid week games in somewhere but avoids farcical loop fixtures.

They'll need to slip in a few midweek games as games inevitably get postponed due to covid outbreaks.

They have to do something, doing nothing isn't an option. Whether this is the right thing is anybody's guess, but it will do for starters and then we/they can see how how it flies.

The football league is instructing clubs to not expect any fans back in grounds this season. So I can't see Rugby getting any fans till at least June as this is the earliest opportunity after the end of the football season.

Once and loop fixtures kinda makes we want to drop the ST for a year...

It's almost a pointless endeavour

Will clubs even want the season to start if there are still no crowds?

Hard to say.

They will still have wages to pay come what may, so it may depend on how the figures stack up between no games played and revenue from streaming. Streamed games may well be the difference for season ticket holders, in as much as, personally, under the circumstances I'm prepared to swap my attendance for the stream and I'd guess that many pay on the gate fans would buy a stream ticket for the games. There is some income involved so I'd guess the clubs would be better off with that scenario.

Without games fans will become 'disengaged' andI feel that fact could easily be the nail in the coffin of RL, to be honest. It's possible clubs may feel they have little choice but to put something on.

Furlough scheme carries on until April so I'd guess some clubs wouldn't be opposed to delaying season start to after then, although I don't think it applies in our case as players are in doing pre-season work so wont be eligible for furlough

Are you sure that's right? If they're part time and furloughed because they can't play it seems a bit much to take them off furlough just for training when they still can't play.