By MARK CASHMAN

The Shute Shield competition may not be up and running until sometime in August.

The likelihood of an extension to the Sydney lockdown means that the Sydney Rugby Union’s hopes of getting things underway again towards the end of July are optimistic at best.

The SRU did think that July 24 or July 31 may be viable dates for a restart but that has been knocked around a bit by the surge of numbers from the Delta variant and also the fact that restrictions may be imposed even after lockdown ends.