The fall-out from the World Cup will still be scattering itself around the globe when the International Rugby Board meets in Paris in November to discuss the future of the game.

The focus will be on the fixture schedule. Something for the European unions to take notice of, bearing in mind that they went into this tournament having not played a competitive match for months, is that the time frame for New Zealand in 2011 will be exactly the same as France: an early September start with the final held in the third week in October.

The southern-hemisphere season structure is neatly divided into windows: the Super 14 is followed by friendly internationals before the Tri-Nations is held. New Zealand and South Africa then stage their traditional provincial competitions, something Australia are looking to replicate, before heading off for their November European tours.

In Europe, it is less straightforward because of the strong club system which operates in England and France, and to a lesser extent Italy. Tournaments overlap: domestic leagues are interrupted by the Heineken Cup and autumn internationals before the Six Nations starts, and everything is fought to a conclusion in May (June in France) after which battered players are sent to the southern hemisphere for a two-Test tour.

In recent years, European teams have tended to send fringe and emerging players on tour, enraging South Africa, Australia and New Zealand who, in response, have been looking into whether it is possible to beef up their own tournaments to make up for the commercial hit they have been taking. That feeling was reinforced by Scotland's decision to rest most of their leading players when they played the All Blacks last Sunday.

It was a move which enraged New Zealand's administrators and there have been calls for Fiji, Tonga and Samoa to be included in the Super 14 series and Argentina added to the Tri-Nations. If that happened, the friendly international window in the southern hemisphere would shrink, expanding only for Lions tours, and there would be a knock-on effect in the European autumn.

As all the major northern hemisphere unions rely on November internationals to stay in business, the implications could be considerable. The fact that Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have all qualified for the World Cup quarter-finals while none of the Six Nations has ahead of the final round of group matches, has made the south more bullish about how the future should be shaped.

One suggestion at the Paris conference, to which representatives of the leading clubs in England and France have been invited, will be for a global season. Broadcasters and sponsors will also be at the gathering and their input, given that the game relies on their commercial backing, will have a significant bearing on any changes which are recommended.

England have long argued that the Six Nations should be pushed back to the end of the season, allowing all club competitions to be played to a conclusion, but France have always vetoed the idea because their league play-off final in June is regarded as the highlight of the domestic rugby calendar.

Even if the Six Nations remains in its current slot, some thought has to be given to 2011 because of the September start to the New Zealand World Cup. This year, European coaches had to weigh up whether to rest players at the end of the domestic season rather than take them on tour, and the August friendly internationals, which are more valuable commercially than in a playing sense, proved inadequate preparation for this month.

Why not push the Six Nations back in 2011, if not to the same time as the Tri-Nations, then at least much closer to it? There would still be scope for money-raising friendlies. The European unions have to start thinking about and planning for the 2011 tournament as soon as the final whistle sounds at the Stade de France on October 20.

They started this tournament having given the major southern hemisphere unions a clear start. Now that it is clear the World Cup will not revert to its old format of being played alternately in June and October, and given that rugby union effectively now operates in a four-year cycle, hard choices have to be made and, perhaps, tradition kicked into touch if the Paris conference is to amount to something more than a talking shop.