Editor
Officials details of the proposed Nations Championship have today been revealed by World Rugby, with a complex two-conference, six-division structure to be used.
Despite earlier reports that the Six Nations and Rugby Championship sides would be joined by Japan and the USA for an exclusive 12-team competition in 2022 – at the expense of higher-ranked Pacific Nations sides – it now appears as if this won’t necessarily be the case.
World Rugby clarified in a statement this morning that the European Conference and ‘Rest of World’ Conference would be split into three divisions, with promotion and relegation between those divisions possible after each Nations Championship season through playoffs.
The competition would run every year, except for World Cup years – while promotion and relegation between the top two divisions would not occur in British and Irish Lions tour years.
World Rugby is also looking at expanding the World Cup from 2027 onwards, to ensure it remains the centrepiece of the international rugby scene.
World Rugby has moved to clarify the organisation’s position on the merits and structure of a Nations Championship concept in advance of key meetings in Dublin next week. pic.twitter.com/NlefufHdxf
— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) March 6, 2019
The top two divisions in each conference will have six teams, while the third division will feature 16 teams split into pools of four. The top two teams in the top divisions will qualify for cross-conference semi-finals and, ultimately, a final.
Conversely, the bottom team in the top division of each conference will play-off against the top team from the second division and, if the latter side wins, they’ll take their opponent’s spot in the top division the next season.
The top teams in each of the four third division pools will play semi-finals and a final, with the winner of that tournament earning the right to play the bottom team in the second division in a promotion-relegation play-off.
While the teams are as of yet unconfirmed, an explainer video released by World Rugby floated this as the likely line-up of teams at the inaugural 2022 tournament.
Europe Division 1 | World Division 1 |
---|---|
England | Argentina |
France | Australia |
Ireland | Fiji |
Italy | Japan |
Scotland | New Zealand |
Wales | South Africa |
Europe Division 2 | World Division 2 |
Belgium | Hong Kong |
Georgia | Namibia |
Portugal | Samoa |
Romania | Tonga |
Russia | Uruguay |
Spain | USA |
Europe Division 3 | World Division 3 |
Euro A | Africa |
Czech Republic | Kenya |
Germany | Tunisia |
Netherlands | Uganda |
Switzerland | Zimbabwe |
Euro B | Asia |
Lithuania | Malaysia |
Moldova | Philippines |
Poland | South Korea |
Ukraine | Sri Lanka |
Euro C | North America |
Croatia | Canada |
Israel | Cayman Islands |
Malta | Mexico |
Sweden | Trinidad & Tobago |
Euro D | Latin America |
Andorra | Brazil |
Hungary | Chile |
Latvia | Colombia |
Luxembourg | Paraguay |
Despite earlier reports that high-ranking Pacific Nations sides were set to be snubbed by the new 12-team competition, it now appears they’ll be able to take part – albeit as potentially a second division side initially.
The Six Nations sides will almost certainly make up Europe’s top division immediately, however, it appears the other top division will be made up of the four Rugby Championship sides and the next-best ranked nations – at this stage, Fiji and Japan.
While this news will go some way to assuaging fears of a Pacific Island boycott of the 2019 World Cup, it is understood some countries and players were opposed to the promotion-relegation system.
Players had already expressed concern as to the increased workload this competition would force them to endure, although a World Rugby statement tried to allay those fears as well.
“Player welfare is fundamental to our sport,” it reads.
“Change is always difficult, and nobody expected complex multi-stakeholder discussions to be simple, however for a sport to grow and thrive, it must explore ways to innovate and evolve.
“Within the original proposal, players would play a maximum of 13 matches if their team reaches the final, compared to an average of between 12 and 14 Test matches presently.
“Most teams would play 11 matches.”