South Africa have told the southern hemisphere’s governing body they are exploring their option of joining the Six Nations after 2025 as plans for a major overhaul of the global calendar gather pace.
With powerbrokers of the global game due to meet next month to finalise plans for a ground-breaking biennial world competition, it has emerged that South Africa put Sanzaar on notice towards the end of last year.
The Springboks have been increasingly aligning themselves with the northern hemisphere in recent years with the Bulls, Sharks, Stormers and Lions all joining the United Rugby Championship.
On Wednesday Sanzaar revealed how the South Africa union had committed to the Rugby Championship until 2025 – in line with broadcast arrangements. That signals a significant sea change, however, because less than 18 months ago, a similar commitment was made until 2030.
Last month the Six Nations chief executive, Ben Morel, said he was “extremely cautious” about expansion but the financial benefits are obvious for all parties and South Africa are said to be in talks with the private equity firm CVC, which has acquired stakes in the Six Nations, the Premiership and the URC.
“They [South Africa] did put us on notice they were exploring their options – that was well before Christmas,” the Sanzaar chief executive, Brendan Morris, said. “We’ve got a number of international and local broadcast deals that are extended to 2025. There was never any cause for alarm that we were never going to meet those obligations.
“We’re coming out of the worst three years in living memory of financial impact. Everybody has to do their due diligence in exploring what competitions to be involved in, and what provides the best opportunity for the best commercial outcome.”
The Six Nations insisted its focus remains on revamping the July and November Test windows with key talks to take place next month. Those discussions could result in a new‑look world competition to be held every two years from 2024.
The Rugby Football Union chief executive, Bill Sweeney, will be central to those discussions and though previous attempts to launch a World Nations Championship were consigned to failure in 2019 there is collective optimism that the biennial tournament – with a grand final in the November window – can get off the ground.
The premise is largely similar to the World Nations Championship though it is being driven by the Six Nations unions and their Sanzaar counterparts. World Rugby is working closely with the unions and facilitating discussions but it is not taking the lead as was the case three years ago.
According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, the competition would take place in non-World Cup and British & Irish Lions years with the Six Nations and four Sanzaar teams joined by another two – potentially Japan and Fiji.
All nations would accrue points throughout the Six Nations, Rugby Championship as well as the summer tours and November Tests. However, rather than teams such as England touring one southern-hemisphere side in the summer – as Eddie Jones’s side do in Australia in July – they would tour multiple countries, as the Rugby Championship sides do in November.
“If we can work together for an outcome that produces a global champion every two years, engages our fanbases 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,” Morris told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Some of the same stumbling blocks remain. The World Nations Championship effectively failed due to fears over introducing promotion and relegation to the Six Nations and again there is a push for the new competition to have two tiers and potential movement between them.
Player welfare would also be an issue but the RFU is optimistic there would be less resistance from the Premiership clubs than in the past given a more collaborative approach with PRL.
The Premiership, meanwhile, is to drop asymptomatic Covid testing with immediate effect in line with the rest of the elite game in England. The current testing protocols for Jones’s England squad will remain in place, however, to stay aligned with the rest of the teams in the Six Nations.
