English and French clubs have put themselves on a war footing in the lead-up to World Rugby next week publishing the revised Test windows for the autumn, warning they will not release players if there is a clash with European and domestic finals scheduled to be played in October. The board of European Professional Club Rugby held a virtual meeting on Wednesday to finalise the dates for this season’s postponed knockout stages of the Champions and Challenge Cups and during it club delegates said they expected finals to have precedence over Tests. The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be played on the final two weekends in September with the finals on 16-17 October. It is understood the Premiership has pencilled in its final for 24 October at Twickenham, a date the Six Nations want for some of the championship’s postponed matches. Even if England are not involved the Premiership leaders, Exeter, have the Scotland full-back Stuart Hogg in their squad while Wales and Italy could also become embroiled in a dispute over player release. World Rugby is expected to announce the July and November windows will be combined, even if tours remain highly unlikely because travel restrictions are expected to be in place for the rest of the year. Several options have been considered and unions are looking at a six-week block that would take in October, November and the beginning of December. The Pro14 would not be affected. Its season will resume on 22 August, with two weekends of derbies before the play-off semi-finals are played before the 12 September final. The new season is scheduled to start on 3 October and would carry on through the entire Test window. EPCR will tell World Rugby it expects its dates to stand alone under a long-standing agreement. Clubs have expressed frustration that they have not been consulted enough over the Test rescheduling and are sceptical about plans to align the global calendar. That would mean the European club season starting in January and being played throughout the summer. Another issue debated by EPCR was where its finals will be played. They are due to be held in Marseille and the intention is to honour that, but a contingency plan is being set up should a French club not make the final day of either competition and the matches have to be played behind closed doors, to prevent unnecessary travel.