World Rugby’s suggestion of having a Six Nations game moved to the USA seem remote in the extreme given the amount of stumbling blocks in the way, even if there was an appetite to do so among the unions and federations who are the stakeholders in the championship.

The game’s governing body are desperate to increase the low profile of rugby union in the USA, where the game is flagging, ahead of the 2031 World Cup being staged there.

England did face the USA in Washington last year, while Ireland and New Zealand met in Chicago last November. This Saturday’s fourth Test between South Africa and New Zealand will be staged in Baltimore and the 2030 finals weekend of the Nations Championship has also been earmarked for the United States.

World Rugby are willing to offer financial incentives to the unions and have reportedly touted the Ireland-Italy game as a Six Nations match which could be moved to the US, thereby tapping into the expat population from both countries on the east coast.

But there is no apparent desire among the unions to move Six Nations games. The RFU have already indicated that England games are simply too lucrative to be moved elsewhere. Similarly, moving a game from the Aviva Stadium to the US is not viable.

Even if there was interest in moving a game to the US, the Six Nations committee would have to agree, as would the tournament broadcasters and there are deals in place with ITV, BBC, RTÉ, Virgin Media, France Television, Sky Italia and RAI for televising championship games. These deals run until 2029 and include match scheduling.

As with the RFU’s debenture holders, the IRFU’s tranche of 10,000 10-year tickets guarantee purchasers access to all home games in the Aviva Stadium, which cost almost €20,000 per ticket and generates tens of millions for the union, which in turn underpins their entire financial model.

The Aviva’s naming rights also include hosting all of Ireland’s Six Nations game, as is the case with the home stadiums of the other unions and federations, among whom there have been no discussions about shifting a Six Nations game to the US.

“In terms of the matchday economics, [South Africa v New Zealand] is like a Six Nations match,” the World Rugby chief executive, Alan Gilpin, told the Telegraph. “It starts to show that [financial return] is not the barrier. So if there is the appetite to take some of these big matches in the future to the US, we can now.

“We completely understand [the] need for rugby to continue to drive more economic sustainability. Any of those unions [could] go and look at a match that they would have had at home and say, ‘Right, can I at least match, if not better my own economics by partnering with World Rugby and taking that match to the US?’”

But this weekend’s South Africa v New Zealand game is not akin to a Six Nations game in that it is the fourth Test of a one-off series. Besides which, the Six Nations committee have not even discussed moving a game to America, and in addition to all the aforementioned stumbling blocks, Six Nations games have a huge economic impact on the host city.

In the case of Six Nations games at the Aviva, according to studies by the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, they generate €20-30 million for the economy. The tens of thousands of rugby supporters who travel to away games are the very essence of the Six Nations. It’s inconceivable that this would be sacrificed by moving a game to America.