Questions the 'League of Nations' will have to answer
Rumours have sprung up this week out of France to suggest that there could be a large scale shake-up of international rugby on the cards.
The proposed change would introduce an annual tournament between the top 12 teams in the world, split up into pool and knockout stages.
Whilst there have been cries for change for the last number of years, these requests have typically been to better align the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere seasons at both domestic and international levels – which begs the question: what does this ‘World League’ hope to achieve?
Having an actual trophy to fight for come November does add a little bit more of an incentive to winning the end of year tests, but the potential tournament does seem to be geared more towards giving some extra game time to the Tier 2 teams that have been starved of regular, high-quality opposition.
Whatever the purpose of the tournament, we have some questions that need to be answered before we can really buy in to this potentially massive change to the game.
How will the teams be decided?
If rumours are to be believed and the competition will be battled out between four pools of three, it will be curious to see how these twelve teams are decided. If it’s based on world rankings, then at present you would see the five home nations, the Rugby Championship teams and Fiji, Japan and Tonga competing in year one.
The world rankings, of course, are fluid by their very nature, so it seems unlikely that these twelve teams would be guaranteed permanent places in the competition. Using the rankings would mean that the competition would have new nations involved every year, with the Pacific Island teams, Japan, Italy and the Tier 2 European teams likely swapping places regularly.
Of course, if the tournament takes place every year then we would hope to see the competitors for each year’s competition confirmed as early in the piece as possible to avoid scheduling issues. As it stands, most international fixtures are at least partially locked in a year or two before the matches take place – with many of the June tours finalised at the start of the World Cup cycle. Scheduling would certainly be considerably easier if the competing nations remained constant from year to year, but this throws up a number of other problems.
With the expectation in place that the competition would change Hemispheric host each year, one other possibility is to include the core nations every year (i.e. the home nations and the Rugby Championship teams) and then bring in other sides based on where the competition is located.
Perhaps when England host the competition we would see the likes of Italy, Georgia, Romania and the like taking part, with the Pacific teams getting involved when the competition is hosted in the Southern Hemisphere.
Whichever way the competition goes, it’s important that we aren’t left with the same old teams competing every year, continuing the sequence of the strongest teams growing stronger and the Tier 2 nations being left out in the cold.
How to avoid international rugby growing stale?
The Six Nations attracts a huge audience year after year. Say what you will about the quality of the rugby on display, but the competition is always a tight affair and pundits will pay ample money to watch from the stands or from their couches at home.
The Rugby Championship, in contrast, is stuttering along with questions regularly asked about what value there is to the tournament.
Although there is the odd upset from time to time, it’s almost a given every year that the All Blacks will take out the trophy. Arguably the biggest difference between the Rugby Championship and the Six Nations is the level of competitiveness. Rarely is it easy to call who will win the Six Nations before the tournament commences.
There are other problems too.
Australian fans are dwindling, rumours emerge every second week that South Africa are considering other options, and Argentina have finished bottom of the log in almost every championship they’ve taken part in.
Arguably, the most exciting international matches in the calendar are the tours in June and November – and that’s largely because of their novelty. When the same teams play each other year after year, you can’t help but get a little bored. Though we’ve seen the odd quirk in the schedules (for example, Australia playing England four times last year), the current timetable has meant that we’ve seen at least some variation between matches from year to year.
Any sort of World League must preserve the variability of the one-off international matches; if New Zealand and England play each other every year, the fixture will lose some of its lustre. Signs so far point to a knockout style tournament – which should at least ensure that we’re not seeing the same teams playing one another all the time. Any sort of tournament would have to maintain this structure to guarantee that matches are still savoured by the fans.
What does it mean for the World Cup?
Simply put, a World League would completely undermine the current World Cup setup – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. When considering the teams who are actually capable of winning the World Cup, there are only really three matches at most that matter – the finals.
It’s almost a given that New Zealand, South Africa and the other true contenders will always make it out their pools (though let’s not forget England 2015), which means the pool stages of the competition are all but pointless. Given how low the overall standard is, some of the pool matches barely even count as legitimate warm ups.
With the very real possibility of World Cup expansion on the cards and dilution of quality all but guaranteed, maybe it’s time that a new competition is introduced that really pits the best against the best? That’s not to say the we shouldn’t maintain the World Cup as showpiece tournament, bringing in countries from all over the world and growing the game, but there’s certainly room in the calendar for a real ‘champion of champions’ tournament with only the highest quality allowed to compete.
Perhaps the rumoured competition is merely that – just a pipe dream conjured up by some higher ups to create a bit of a stir. One way or another, we’ll hear from World Rugby soon and the picture should clear up. Regardless of what happens, any new World League style competition will need to put a few people’s fears at ease before it can be rolled out.
In other news:
Comments on RugbyPass
Etzebeth went on to say: “I would never dream of saying that systems stay in place following a change in captain. To say that would be deeply, deeply, disrespectful of Siya. A while back an Irish person told me they would be fine without Sexton, so I’m just responding to that.”
3 Go to commentsClose games are what we want to see…. What a match it was…. I am sure that everyone was drained by the end of it. The reality of it all there has to be a winner and a loser. The fact that we still talking about it is almost 6 months to the day Rugby is the winner.. Asante sana… Here is to 2027 and what it will bring out.
182 Go to commentsIt’s going to be a good game. COYQ
1 Go to comments“Shock”, the guy was casually saying he was just slightly surprised. Nowadays if you say anything it gets taken completely out of context. Calm down everyone.
156 Go to commentsAll I can say after reading this bitter, sour, sad piece is… Thank you very much! This will be read in the change room just before kick off on 31 August…
182 Go to commentsLook, we know contradicting opinions and wacky comments bring readers and clicks, so well done to RP for allowing always-wrong-Ben to say something here. However RP needs to put a disclaimer next to his comments for their own credibility. NZ was and is incapable of acknowledging their opp beating them. They refused so with Ire and with Arg in 2022 and also the Boks in 2023 x 2. Nothing Ben says here holds water, NZ attacked backwards, except when Kolisi and Kolbe was off And cyncialy took out Bongi, we played without lineouts for 75mins. Kolisi and Kurt-Lee almost scored twice. Thats 3 vs 2 for Boks, but the Boks opportunities was legal. Boks should have been 16-3 up by half time. Tacticaly the Boks attacked better defended better scrummed better (without a hooker) kicked better and crossed the whitewash more times. Boks beat Fr Eng Nz to win in 23, comeon give some credit at least. Even Federer Verstappen NY Mets, Mamoa, was able to see a great human sport achievement by the Boks and their DNA Boks #RWC27 !🏉
182 Go to commentsForget the 85kg bit, that can become something else. However I do like the one off test on ANZAC day idea. SR plays Fri/ Sat, test players travel Sunday and the squads have the full week together before playing Saturday. Rest of SR has a week off. Either involve women's teams in same location or in the other country and rotate annually. Herbert is right in that change is needed.
3 Go to commentsI’ve read loads of nonsense before but this article takes the cake. Or perhaps someone changed the date for April Fool's Day.
3 Go to commentsReally Rugbypass? Ben Smith I think you forgot what the Springboks did to the All Blacks at Twickenham 8 weeks earlier? Springboks 35 All Blacks 7. There is alot of ifs and buts in your article. The All Blacks threw the sink at the Springboks and unfortunately they were not good enough regardless if they played with 14 men or not. It was the Springboks who forced the All Blacks to make mistakes! Sorry but not Sorry the Springboks is the best ever Rugby World Cup Nation in the world. 4 Cups baby!
182 Go to commentsYou just backed the Boks with that fantastic review! Well done! Have some cake!
182 Go to commentsBen Smith please write up something better than this. The Springboks would have won the world cup if you were 15 men on the field. They would have found a way, they always find a way to beat the All Blacks.
182 Go to commentsWow, there is a lot of “could have” and “ should have” in this waist of time dribble. I love the desperation in this story to search for a glimpse at a silver lining. Here are the facts, NZ was a badly coached and undisciplined shadow of their former glory. They never took the lead in a game they were never going to win.
182 Go to commentsGOTTA MAKE ‘THE GEORGE’ HAPPEN!!!! That’s a great idea! A trans Tasman midget battle on ANZAC Day. I don’t think the ABs Wallabies game should be a one off winner takes all though, just the first match with the other two later in the year with the RC. Reason being, no one will ever shut up about how aussies couldn’t win it when it was a 3 match series.
3 Go to comments@Ben smith. Thats knock out rugby. So honeslty who cares?
182 Go to commentsIt will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
2 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
2 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
182 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
182 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to comments