If you have been hiding under a rock, time for a news flash that is all over the internet. Twelve countries playing against one another in every year apart from World Cup Years.
Sounds good in theory. There are a lot of holes though, and a lot of insane models floating about that do nothing to address player fatigue, nor offer opportunity to the Pacific Island nations who are close friends of Australia and New Zealand and have certainly earnt their place in such a championship.
Let’s see if we can steer idea in better direction.
First of all, which countries should be entitled to play in the competition?
Fiji and Georgia are top 12 nations. However, they would be locked out of the recently reported 12 Nations Rugby Championship. Instead, teams ranked outside the top 12 such as Italy and the USA would gain entry. Samoa and Tonga would also be locked out of the tournament.
This is unacceptable.
To address this, a type of promotion and relegation should be implemented, however, foundation teams should be protected from relegation.
Five Nations teams England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France, as well as Rugby Championship teams Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina should never face relegation. All of these teams except Ireland have played in a World Cup semi-final, while Ireland proved themselves the best team in the World last year when they defeated the All Blacks.
The fight is then on for the final European spot. As perennial wooden spooners of the Six Nations, Italy should have to defeat other European Nations such as Georgia, Romania, Russia and Spain for entry.
Next, the southern hemisphere. Two spots remain. A rethink is required on how best to approach the southern hemisphere. The logical choice is geography and a two conference system. Let us call the conferences the Anzac Conference and the Triple Continent Conference.
Anzac Conference
Australia and New Zealand have the blessings of geographic proximity. We always have. For this reason, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa would compete each year for entry into the Anzac Conference.
Either that, or Fiji, Tonga and Samoa form a united Pacific Nations team. A Pacific Nations team would be preferable as teams will need a lot of depth to compete in the 12 Nations Championship.
The Anzac qualifier or Pacific Nations team would play one or two home games. The remaining ‘home’ games for the qualifier would be played in Australia and New Zealand. Adopting this centralised approach would no doubt be preferred by the touring countries and provide commercial benefits to all.
Triple Continent Conference
Now onto the problem conference comprising South Africa and Argentina. The worst and best thing that happened to rugby was arguably South Africa’s great triumph in 1995.
However, SANZAAR ushered in the era of insane travel. The final Triple Continent Conference spot would rotate each year between Japan and USA.
Tactics such as hosting the Triple Continent conference at two venues each year should be employed to reduce international demands. Ideally, every second year, European versus Triple Continent games would be hosted in South Africa, while Anzac versus Triple Continent games would be hosted in the United States.
The next time the tournament is held, European teams play Triple Continent teams in Argentina, and Anzac teams face Triple Continent teams in Japan.
Triple Continent nations should be guaranteed at least one game each year against a fellow Triple Continent nation.
Now to player fatigue. Strict international rule needs to be imposed.
An agreement should be reached which caps the number of hours each year a player can take the field and the number of games played each year at Test, Super Rugby and club rugby level.
Equally important, there should be a cap on the number of domestic flights, international flights and travel distance a player flies each year.
This would go a long way to protecting the players.
What do you think? Should the Pacific Nations be excluded? Would this be a better system than players jet setting every year all over the planet?
And is it time to finally introduce player welfare rules that reduce exposure time to the often hazardous Test Match rugby playing environment?
Lewis
Guest
Oh how I love it when bitter, old blokes resort to labelling people as "snowflakes". And i'd much prefer to stay here and provoke you into saying something vaguely more substantial than the linguistic equivalent of simply shrugging and rubbing your thumb over your index and middle fingers! Redundant anyway, it seems your wishes aren't even remotely being considered by the powers that be and the PI's are threatening boycott. Love ya Peppy.
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
Constructive as always snowflake. Go find something else to get outraged about
Lewis
Guest
And with a final puff of sarcasm off he went back to the cricket forums.
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
You're right again Lewis. How naive of me to think that money could be a factor. I've learnt a valuable lesson. Thanks for setting me straight
Lewis
Guest
Perhaps bumbling, frustrated, or part-time are better descriptors?
Jibba Jabba
Roar Guru
Is Australia still a proud rugby nation ?? asking for a friend ..
Jibba Jabba
Roar Guru
I have read elsewhere (from Carlos or No Brain) that A Pichot is being clever and just trying stuff on, floating ideas, leaking stuff, etc - well he can f.... o because as a retired rugby player and fan and watcher i just want to see good rugby played by good teams on an equal basis not this commercialised (anti PI) rubbish currently being proposed.. if pichot wants to play politics tell him to bugger off back to where he comes from and be a politician and leave rugby alone. It is not his toy to play with
Lewis
Guest
Lol so instead of asking pertinent questions about how such a move would take place on an article that pitched the idea on a forum that encourages discussion based on sport instead just blithely repeat “nah it’s all about money” and then ridiculously describe the presence of the PI nations in a global sport which rests largely upon their involvement as charitable!? Dig up dude! Perhaps consider that there is more than just money at stake here.
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
My repeated insistence? Instead of asking all these lovely idealistic fantasy questions how about asking the first question the administrators would have asked Will this potential team be financially independent or will it need to be propped up by the rest. It's not a rugby charity
Lewis
Guest
What common language would they all speak Sgt? Where would they be based primarily? Would the sporting bodies of each Island nation have an equal share in the team or would it be based on player representation? It is quite honestly an awful proposition and I’d relax more if your repeated insistence on it working had any kind of basis in fact or study or even reflected a nuanced understanding of the global position of Rugby. What have the Drua got to do with this? If anything they are strong evidence that simply giving the nations more opportunities to play as single entities creates more success! I would certainly concede something like this could happen one day on a exhibition basis in much the same way as a Northern Hemisphere vs Southern Hemisphere but to seriously suggest, as you are, that it should now be the permanent and everlasting way each nation now plays each and every year is bonkers. Call me crazy but i’d Just way prefer a playing structure that provides nations with a shred of autonomy, as well as the chance to foster unique identities and therefore passion and tribalism amongst their fans. That is quite clearly what all the PI nations and most rugby organisations want as evidenced in recent news yet something that you seem to want to reject out of hand cos “crowd” “$”
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
Chill Lewis I love the Drua. Would love to see them or other islander teams in the Super comp. World rugby does owe the PI who play worldwide but the problem is crowd and $$. A combo team would be better than nothing which is where we're currently at
Lewis
Guest
Andrew what language would they all speak? Should they just ditch their own individual languages and speak English when they train or would you develope some kind of amalgamated dialect for them to communicate with? I can see that you are advocating for success but can’t you see how asking all those nations to leave behind their own agency cos together they “would be a weapon” is pretty ludicrous and is totally built on the belief that because they are small and to you seemingly insignificant then their achievements are too? Fiji have a gold medal in rugby 7’s for gods sakes! I’m sure SA, Aus and NZ combined would be an absolute weapon too but we would never dream of asking those proud rugby nations to ditch their individuality! I would urge you to read Ben Ryan’s points on rugby in the Pacific they are totally hamstrung by more nefarious forces than simply their lack of money and population.
Lewis
Guest
How wonderful another sarcastically delivered false comparison! Doing a bang up job of displaying your inability to understand the debate. So the precedent for dissolving singular rugby teams and the sporting agency of ENTIRE nations is that “it’s fine, cos we kinda already have a unified exhibition team anyway so you can be just like them, apologies for the loss in revenue and opportunity but we consider you more of a sideshow anyway.” Your arrogance and seemingly wilful ignorance is quite astounding but hey keep on practicing that wonderful sarcasm so as to never actually engage with anything!
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
The flaw in this is that it's about $$ not rugby. The PI have none
rebel
Roar Guru
The flaw in this is that you mainly gain ranking points beating higher ranked sides and vice versa for losing. Ranking points movement would be difficult.
liquorbox_
Roar Rookie
Surely the easiest solution is to have the top 12 teams based on rankings play every year, if Fiji, Samoa and Tonga can get in the top twelve then they get a spot, otherwise they miss out.
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
I know you're so right. Imagine if they had to play every year in an exhibition and they went and referred to them as barbarians!
Andrew Joseph
Roar Rookie
So offered two options in article. A united Pacific team and a single qualifier. Pros and cons of both. Take your points. What you need to appreciate though is depth and player welfare. This is the major advantage of a combined team. Another advantage is success. Greater depth leads to greater success. No Pacific team has made it to semis of rwc. This is due to a lot of factors like opportunity to play against top tier nations, smaller player base, money, lack of large stadiums and gate takings. Pacific Islands combined would be a weapon.
The Slow Eater
Roar Rookie
I don’t mind the idea of relegation but all teams should be subject to being relegated. I think you also need USA in the mix - growth in USA is important for the sport moving forward
Lewis
Guest
IT’S A ONCE IN EVERY 4 YEARS TOURNAMENT AND ALL THE HOME NATIONS STILL PLAY TESTS WHILE IT HAPPENS! ITS NOT THE SAME AS DISOLVING 3 NATIONS INTO ONE PERMANENTLY!