The World Rugby Nations Championship starts next year after the last ever autumn internationals campaign this year. Or does it?
This is the last ever autumn rugby union series, not that you’d have any idea. Gone will be the days of friendly matches on chilly November evenings and in will come games with a trophy at stake. Again, not that you’d have any idea.
The World Rugby Nations Championship is due to begin next year but the information about rugby’s global competition went from a stream to a drip, and is now non-existent.
The competition format will (apparently) include the six teams that compete in the Six Nations, the four from the Rugby Championship and two others – expected to be Japan and Fiji.
They’ll use existing cross-hemisphere windows (or will they?), with finals taking place at a hub venue in places such as London or Qatar.
World Rugby Nations Championship a farce?
The point is this: no fans have the foggiest idea what on earth is going on. And the silence is deafening.
There are rumours that England’s away match against Fiji could be played in Twickenham, and that, once spread out, the prize money isn’t that much more than staging an extra Test match at Allianz Stadium. What a farce.
Every game already matters in rugby, especially for the likes of England – Allianz Stadium is always full and the World Rugby Nations Championship probably wouldn’t change that.
The positive side of the new competition is the suggested inclusion of a second tier, with the threat of relegation from the top tier potentially good for the likes of Wales – who cannot fill the Principality Stadium at the moment and could do with some jeopardy.
But that is instantly wiped away with news that European teams cannot be relegated from the Six Nations, nor the southern hemisphere teams from the Rugby Championship.
The project ring-fences the top teams away from the minnows while looking after them if they have a bad run – Uefa’s footballing equivalent, the Nations League, has a proper promotion and relegation system.
Clarity
The World Rugby Nations Championship needs to provide some clarity to its soon-to-be audience; we don’t know what it stands for, what it will look like or whether it will even be on television.
Announcements need to be made, and they need to be made soon. Otherwise this autumn will see a glorious opportunity to sell a narrative wasted in true rugby fashion.
I feel like I am pretty plugged into the game given my time playing and then following it, but the new competition plans have completely passed me by.
So when I am sat down over the next four weeks watching Steve Borthwick’s England take on Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina I will do so knowing it is the last time these kinds of games will be taking place with nothing on the line besides victory: no looming trophy, no losing a match trying to chase a try-bonus point, just a solid battle in front of raucous fans.
The new World Rugby Nations Championship could be just what rugby needs. If only we knew the first thing about it.
Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance. Follow Ollie @OlliePhillips11