Organisers of the World Rugby Classic are closely monitoring the path and potential impact of Hurricane Melissa as they hope there is no disruption to the 37th edition, which is scheduled to start on North Field, National Sports Centre, from Saturday.

With the storm expected to pass about 80 miles to the island’s west- northwest in the early hours of tomorrow morning as a Category 1 hurricane, tournament director Ronan Kane is waiting to assess any damage but has no plans to alter the competition schedule.

“We have been keeping a close eye on Hurricane Melissa since early last week,” Kane said. “Adjustments have been made to our set-up as Melissa is expected to pass Bermuda early on Friday.

“We are going to continue with our planned schedule with gates set to open at 5.30pm on Saturday.

“But any changes to the schedule will be communicated via our social-media pages and local media outlets.”

Tournament founder John Kane revealed that the decision has been made not to erect any tents until the coast is clear on Saturday.

“We reckon this will be gone by Friday, so we’ll put up the tents on Saturday morning,” he said.

“We’re just watching what’s going on in Jamaica and you never quite know what it’s going to be like when it comes here.

“We usually put up the tents days before, but this year we’re waiting for the storm to pass. We don’t start play until Saturday evening and all we need is four hours to get the tents up.

“It’s a slow start as well, with the big corporate days on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, so we’ve got that leeway.

“One year all the tents blew down on a Friday night. The next day all the players arrived to help and the guys from Devonshire Rec came in and all helped to pull them back up again.”

If there is to be any disruption, it could come in terms of the arrival of players with the potential cancellation of flights and closure of LF Wade International Airport.

As things stand the only team to arrive before the hurricane is the Argentina Legends squad.

Their players landed in Bermuda yesterday, 24 hours after manager Rodolfo Ventura.

Champions South Africa, who face Classic Eagles on Sunday, are not scheduled to arrive until tomorrow.