Talks are set to take place next month aimed at reviving the idea of a World Nations Championship, three years after the concept failed amid promotion and relegation fears.
Chief executives of rugby’s 10 most powerful unions are said to be close to agreeing the structure of a new competition to be held every two years from 2024.
A winner would be crowned every two years in four, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, skipping World Cup and British and Irish Lions years.
Read more: The latest Six Nations headlines are here
Sanzaar chief executive Brendan Morris told the newspaper: “If we can work together for an outcome that produces a global champion every two years, engages our fan bases more than we do now and throughout the year, and provides a pathway for rugby’s emerging nations to improve and progress, then we can be in a much better position to grow our game and take it to the next level.”
Words are fine, but nailing down an arrangement that pleases all of rugby's main stakeholders might still be a challenge.
The format for the new competition that could hit the block would see two 12-team divisions of top-tier and emerging nations with the Six Nations and Rugby Championship teams in the lead section along with two more non-European countries, such as Japan and Fiji.
Every Test in the Six Nations and Rugby Championship and the six extra internationals taking place in the July and November touring windows would be played for World Nations Championship points.
The Six Nations and Rugby Championship would remain as competitions in their own rights but results in them would count for points in the new global event. New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Argentina and the other two southern hemisphere countries would entertain three different European countries in July instead of hosting traditional three-Test tours against northern teams.
The three weekends of autumn Tests in Europe would also be World Nations Championship affairs, potentially with an extra round bolted on for a showpiece final.
Potential benefits would be that lower-tier nations could play leading nations more often, with promotion and relegation playoffs interlinking each division.
Proponents back in 2019 argued, too, that a fresh competition would provide extra and more meaningful Test fixtures in between World Cups, with revenue boosts likely.
All good so far.
But there still major issues requiring pause for thought, with the assumption being that the obstacles that caused the first plan to fail in the first place haven't gone away, among them anxieties among some Six Nations over the promotion and relegation mechanism. It was reported after the scheme first hit the buffers that at least two countries had expressed doubts about the sustainability of the second division, with the idea of Six Nations relegation playoffs treated warily.
Player-welfare issues would also be an ongoing worry amid the possibility of playing multiple Test matches in different time zones across consecutive weeks, allied to the long-haul travel that would be an integral feature of such a plan.
Anyone doubting the scale of such a challenge for players should have been with Wales on tour in 2004 when they faced Argentina in Buenos Aires and South Africa in Pretoria on consecutive weekends. They shipped 53 points against the Springboks, playing as if they hadn't slept for three nights, which some of the players probably hadn't because of jet-lag and moving across time zones.
The words of then WRU chairman David Pickering still stick in the mind: "No team in future should be asked to make a tour that includes two different time zones."
Critics have further argued that a fresh global event would devalue the World Cup, while there would be scope for increased club v country conflict.
Nonetheless, and while expressing caution about the likelihood of the revival succeeding, Australia officials noted that the Six Nations unions had been ‘enthusiastic participants’ in the new talks.
“The rugby bodies have said ‘is there a better international narrative outside Six Nations and TRC around our July and November windows’,” Rugby Australia boss Andy Marinos, the former Wales international centre, said.
“It’s got to make commercial and financial sense for everybody to do it, so that’s part of the due diligence everyone’s undertaking now, but we’re asking if the global calendar can have a better narrative for fans of the game and can it drive a better return than we get now.”
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