By MARK CASHMAN

July 24 is looming as the likely date for the Shute Shield competition to restart after the COVID lockdown in Sydney, Rugby News has learnt.

At the moment there are a lot of moving parts in this very complicated equation but the competition will start again with the games from Round 11, 12 and 13.

The reason for that is that after those round have been played every team would have each other at least once.

At that point a decision would be made by the SRU board about how the road map towards the finals would look like, including enabling games like the return derby between Manly and Warringah and several other big games to be played.

“We want to try play as many of the 19 home and away round and get in as much footy as possible before the end of the year,” a Sydney Rugby Union spokesperson said.

All that means that the grand final will be pushed into October rather than the current date of Saturday, September 11.

The Wallabies are due to play South Africa at the SCG on the day after that date

As they say stay tuned.

IMAGE: JB PHOTOGRAPHY