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New Biennial Global tournament from 2026

Would have liked for this to expand to 30ish teams. The women's event is cool cause it includes not World Cup teams and will help them grow.

This is just a **** World Cup every other year. I'd rather have the six team format from the women's but do 5 divisions.
 
So im not a huge fan of another big international tournement taking away from the WC or 6N

But if it didnt affect anything else.....what do we think of the format? (in isolation from other factors)
 
Reportedly as well as not getting a share of TV revenue (presumably having to rely on their own agreements) the invited sides won't have their home games, instead having to play these in neutral venues (e.g. Fiji in South Africa and Japan in Australia). A good way to help prevent an Italy or Australia from being relegated whilst claiming to care for the environment.

#growthegame :D
 
Crazy idea,
Should be regional champs every 4 years and use it for RWC qualifying, (only top 8 get auto qualifying, so Scotland would have to qualify from Europe)
Americas Champs
DIV A 5 teams - Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, USA, Canada
DIV B 5 teams - ???
Teams play H or A followed by Final for top 2, play over 6 weeks in Sept/Oct.
5th in Div A v winners Div B
Top 3 not auto Qualified, get RWC qualification.
 
So the top division is the 6 nations touring (july) and hosting (nov) 6 non-european sides
presumably the bottom division will be the European Rugby Championship (except Germany and Poland) touring and hosting a further 6 non-european sides

Will it be Namibia, Chile or Canada that misses out? Or will someone be an honorary european?
 
Bada-Bing! said:
www.theguardian.com

World Rugby’s global calendar overhaul labelled ‘stitch-up’ by smaller nations

The World Rugby Council has approved a new aligned calendar, two-tier competition and expanded men’s World Cup
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
Click to expand...
So, this event takes place in one calendar year, every 2 years, the RWC is every 4 tears, leaving 1 year in a cycle.
Does that mean the Lions stay and leave the home nations playing the T2 with shadow squads or the loss of the Lions?

Personally, if the Lions stay, then they should include Argentina, Chile and Uruguay for one tour.
During that year, the home nations play a European championship of 12 teams.
 
Bada-Bing! said:
www.theguardian.com

World Rugby’s global calendar overhaul labelled ‘stitch-up’ by smaller nations

The World Rugby Council has approved a new aligned calendar, two-tier competition and expanded men’s World Cup
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
Click to expand...
"Gilpin, however, is adamant there will be "50% guaranteed more crossover fixtures" between so-called tier one and tier two sides in non-Nations Cup years, with a revised Pacific Nations Cup featuring Canada, Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Tonga and USA due to start in 2024. He also insisted that accusations of the top nations rigging the system for their own benefit were untrue. "The suggestions that this just makes the rich richer are misplaced. This creates a better landscape."

Happy to read that. Combine that with promotion / relegation playoffs and this doesn't stink so much. I'm slightly nervous that many media outlets are reporting the promotion as "2032 at the earliest" but I would honestly attribute that to poor journalism given the WorldRugby press release is unequivocal. Tier 2 were able to extract some okay concessions due to the 75% vote requirement.

I look forward to seeing how the 12 team lower division will be selected.
 
Watching the semifinals last weekend was thinking how could we get the tier 2 teams involved with the six Nations? And came up with the six Nations split into two and the six teams split, one group with say England Wales, Scotland. And the other you have a group with France Ireland, Italy, then we have the 6 top tier 2 teams brought in to the six Nations and split them into the 2 groups.
After the group games has been played we go to the knockout semifinals, winner of the group plays the runners up of the other group and the 2 winners play the grand 6 nations final

Obviously, the groups change every every year so that's not the same group year after year.

There would only be two extra games
From from the six Nations that we have now, finalists would've played two games and a losing semifinalist play in the one game, unless governing body would want semi-final to be played Home and Away

Group A
England
Wales
Scotland
Georgia
Spain
Germany

Group, B
France
Island
Italy
Romania
Portugal
Holland

Bottom team in each group get relegated so no danger of the current six nation team is getting relegated unless there is a big improvement from the tier 2 teams
 
Brigantine said:
So the top division is the 6 nations touring (july) and hosting (nov) 6 non-european sides
presumably the bottom division will be the European Rugby Championship (except Germany and Poland) touring and hosting a further 6 non-european sides

Will it be Namibia, Chile or Canada that misses out? Or will someone be an honorary european?
Click to expand...
It seems North africa and Asia count as North, whereas all of the Americas counts as south. So could be Algeria or South Korea vs Belgium for the 6th North spot and then a royal mess selecting just 6 from the south. Samoa, Tonga, US, Uruguay, Chile, canada would be my bet with Namibia missing out on financial grounds.

As you say, the split is not even (i would argue due to the suspension of Russia). It would be more equal if Namibia was treated as north and replaced the 6th REC side (which will be largely amatuer). But I guess World Rugby would want the chance to land a Germany or Poland rather than a Nambia or Paraguay.

There needs to be a relegation playoff from division 2 to permit Paraguay, Brazil, Poland etc a chance to the top. We have seen how quickly the quality of a Tier2 may rise and fall with coaching or mass retirement of young players seeking steady money in another job. So the tournament needs to accomodate that. Plenty time to thrash that out (assuming the lower division also starts in 2026).
 
Verde-Rubro said:
Watching the semifinals last weekend was thinking how could we get the tier 2 teams involved with the six Nations? And came up with the six Nations split into two and the six teams split, one group with say England Wales, Scotland. And the other you have a group with France Ireland, Italy, then we have the 6 top tier 2 teams brought in to the six Nations and split them into the 2 groups.
After the group games has been played we go to the knockout semifinals, winner of the group plays the runners up of the other group and the 2 winners play the grand 6 nations final

Obviously, the groups change every every year so that's not the same group year after year.

There would only be two extra games
From from the six Nations that we have now, finalists would've played two games and a losing semifinalist play in the one game, unless governing body would want semi-final to be played Home and Away

Group A
England
Wales
Scotland
Georgia
Spain
Germany

Group, B
France
Island
Italy
Romania
Portugal
Holland

Bottom team in each group get relegated so no danger of the current six nation team is getting relegated unless there is a big improvement from the tier 2 teams
Click to expand...
I would have much preferred a European championship every two years (and something comparable in the SH) but with the World League being approved that is effectively a dead option.

The way ahead would appear to be for a commercially attractive Tier2 like Japan, Spain, Germany, Brazil, US or Canada to do well in the World League, attract crowds (if allowed to play a home game!) and TV revenue. This would get some Tier1 unions comparing the limited commercial value of a Wales or Scotland (neither of whom have meanginful TV rights) against that new opportunity (e.g. "remind me why are we protecting these guys again?"). That is step 1.

Step 2 would then be getting so many Tier2s to be as potentially profitable for Tier1 that the boundaries cease to exist and the door is flung open for nations like Georgia, Uruguay or Portugal, regardless of their commercial value (as it is in football).

I could live 40 more years and would be unlikely to see it. But even this difficult path did not exist until yesterday.
 
Bruce_ma gooshvili said:
Reportedly as well as not getting a share of TV revenue (presumably having to rely on their own agreements) the invited sides won't have their home games, instead having to play these in neutral venues (e.g. Fiji in South Africa and Japan in Australia). A good way to help prevent an Italy or Australia from being relegated whilst claiming to care for the environment.

#growthegame :D
Click to expand...

"To reduce travel time, the southern-hemisphere nations would be divided into two blocks, with the lowest-ranked team in each block required to play their July Tests on neutral territory. It appears New Zealand, Australia and Fiji will be grouped together, with South Africa, Japan and Argentina to form the other touring block."

So Fiji and Japan would have no home games based on rankings rather than because they are not in SANZAAR. I can live with that if confirmed.

 
Based on that, if I was Japan right now, I'd rather just opt for the 2nd division. Get some home tests vs Georgia, Spain, Portugal and select whichever players to help keep up standards in the domestic league
You still have the 1.5x cross-division tests in Lions years

Let Tonga group together with South Africa and Argentina, and play their "home" games in France/Twickenham

If I was Fiji, I'd be trying to permanently replace Australia in the rankings. But then Fiji would probably end up grouped with South Africa and Argentina and still get no home games
 
Last edited:
For the good of the planet (as well as increasing the number of tier 1 vs 2 matches) international rugby should be kept as regionalised as possible outside of World Cup years. The All Blacks, Wallabies should tour their South Pacific neighbours in alternate years (and actually play in Suva, Nuku'alofa and Apia) as well as hosting the same opponents in-between. Japan and Hong Kong could also possibly be added to this group. An Americas tournament between Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, USA and Canada could be played home and away over a two year period, doubling up as World Cup qualification for six of the teams. Likewise in Africa with the Springboks, Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Uganda and Madagascar. The 6N teams could alternate three-match European tours to Portugal, Spain, Georgia, Romania, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany
 
Regarding this topic I had the idea in mind to build up a kind of Six Nations biannual tournament with like five games each in like four weeks in one country (to reduce travelling) with three teams from South America (including Argentina) and three from the Pacific (including Fiji). That could prove some really fun games on a high level, could be well promoted and could help to develop the teams included without battering from Tier 1 (which from time to time would still be necessary, as it's also included in the current world rugby closed shop model after 2032).
 
Black Hawk said:
For the good of the planet (as well as increasing the number of tier 1 vs 2 matches) international rugby should be kept as regionalised as possible outside of World Cup years. The All Blacks, Wallabies should tour their South Pacific neighbours in alternate years (and actually play in Suva, Nuku'alofa and Apia) as well as hosting the same opponents in-between. Japan and Hong Kong could also possibly be added to this group. An Americas tournament between Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, USA and Canada could be played home and away over a two year period, doubling up as World Cup qualification for six of the teams. Likewise in Africa with the Springboks, Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Uganda and Madagascar. The 6N teams could alternate three-match European tours to Portugal, Spain, Georgia, Romania, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany
Click to expand...
If the calendar was properly sorted so that the international window was September and October like RWC then this would work really well.
I would make it every 4 years, and use the other year a 'Champions event' between regional winners etc.
More flagship events create more revenue.
 

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