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So just a slimmed down World Cup then.
Well, bill Beaumont pretty much said that the reason for the world league is precisely to take back control so they can promote the game below tier 1 by having promotion relegation because they can't enforce this in 6 nations or rugby championship as they have no control over those comps.Setting aside the format, is fair to say many rugby nations are horrified by World Rugby handing over responsibility for the June and November test windows to the 6N and SANZAAR. If your face doesn't fit you will not be 'invited' and you would have to be incredibly naive to think those Tier1 unions would uphold promotion/relegation if it would impact negatively on one of their members. Hence there being no apparent commitment to relegation happening in 2030, merely warm words that such a thing may be possible.
So World Rugby are effectively saying they will have zero oversight over Tier1 unions for each of the 18 or so weekends that Tier1 are in action. Tier 1 can play whoever they want, whenever they want, forever. This can only be to empower the Tier1 unions to ring fence it as they see fit (for example if Georgia and Portugal are the top ranked Tier2s in 2030). If World Rugby were running the tournament they could potentially enforce promotion and set clear criteria for the 11th and 12th teams (e.g, world ranking).
I think this is potentially the single most disappointing and protectionist nonsense I've seen in three decades of following rugby (and that's saying something). It has now become a very difficult sport to follow if you have a strong moral compass. Somewhere, between bullfighting and the Lingerie Football League.
I'm now hoping Tier2 unions develop commercially sustainable professional leagues so they can stand on their own two feet. Then they can wake up and smell the coffee and create a breakaway union with a more democratic governing body and an end to a culture of ring-fencing nonsense (last week SANZAAR announced a ring fenced u20 competition, kicking out Fiji and replacing them with SA). It seems pie in the sky at the moment but if this World League does not commit to promotion/relegation then it becomes a time for desperate measures for unions like Georgia and Uruguay who do everything right, raise superior crops of young players than some Tier1 unions and yet will never be admitted to the inner circle because of their modest economies and seemingly because of their ethnicity, geography and/or language.
Yes, he said that but did something quite different. His solution was to give 6N and SANZAAR full control over all Test windows with no commitment to promotion/relegation in the World League or indeed a commitment to ever play a Tier2 side they don't approve of outside of a RWC. So now all test windows are closed shops from 2026 onwards until such time as 6N/SANZAAR unions have a collective change of heart.Well, bill Beaumont pretty much said that the reason for the world league is precisely to take back control so they can promote the game below tier 1 by having promotion relegation because they can't enforce this in 6 nations or rugby championship as they have no control over those comps.
Sudamerica are working very closely with Spain and Portugal to create some Latin solidarity, with rumours of some kind of tournament for them. The problem is the way the World Rugby Council weighted votes work means these unions have almost zero influence on the direction of the sport. But yes, if there is to be a breakaway movement in the future it could have a hispanic flavour.Uruguay just bested Scotland at the U20s. Georgia is a legitimate rugby nation and would compete in second tier of six nations.
I actually think South America has a chance to grow rugby on its own. It will be an uphill battle and it won't be perfect but I think they have enough nations to play each other consistently. The guys who are sacrificing careers now to be semi-professional athletes will be viewed as pioneers.
They have not given control to sanzaar and 6n during June/July and end of year windows have they? In fact that is precisely when they've said the world league games will be played. So I don't understand what additional control they've given anyone. What am I not getting?Yes, he said that but did something quite different. His solution was to give 6N and SANZAAR full control over all Test windows with no commitment to promotion/relegation in the World League or indeed a commitment to ever play a Tier2 side they don't approve of outside of a RWC. So now all test windows are closed shops from 2026 onwards until such time as 6N/SANZAAR unions have a collective change of heart.
This is worse than the status quo where the San Francisco agreement forces Tier1 unions to play the top ranked Tier2 unions. Due to the unique way World Rugby functions this can be pushed through with the agreement of just 8 Tier1 unions regardless of the thoughts of the rest of the rugby playing world.
If promotion / relegation materialises then this can be better than the status quo, but that seems far less likely given WR will not have any control over Division1 of the World League.