The idea that a biennial tournament involving all the Tier 1 nations with a couple of ‘additions’ who can add money to the pot is not going to impact on the current world system of games, the Six Nations, the Rugby Championship, the Rugby World Cup, and the Lions, seems ludicrous to me.
At the moment these current competitions are the pinnacle of the sport with each country focussed on winning their local events as a stepping stone to potentially winning the World Cup.
The new competition appears to me like a desperate attempt by the Unions to have their cake and eat it, by trying to keep the current premier moneymaking competitions plus adding a new one which, theoretically, offers a new and exciting international competition every two years.
The competition looks to be a league of two pools of six international teams that would effectively take over the Six Nations and Rugby Championship which will add two selected Tier 2 nations to their number of four to make six. They would be chosen because of the money they could add rather than their actual rugby playing ability.
Effectively, this will be like the days before the first World Cup when the then IRB members only played against each other while occasionaly allowing a match against non members.
This story is from the July 16, 2023 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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This story is from the July 16, 2023 edition of The Rugby Paper.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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