World Rugby lays out radical plans for global international league

World Rugby's proposed shake-up, variations of which emerged in reports last week, will pit the top six teams in each hemisphere against each other in a global tournament called the Nations Championship.

The expanded league, which will preserve the core of the Six Nations and Rugby Championship, will feature promotion and relegation from a second-tier international circuit.

World Rugby will present its idea to the game's key stakeholders in Dublin, Ireland, next week in a bid to "build a better, stronger game for players, unions, clubs and fans."

In the new format, the southern hemisphere's Rugby Championship, which comprises New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Argentina, will be expanded with the addition of two more teams -- on the basis of the current world rankings these would be Fiji and Japan.

The northern hemisphere's Six Nations would initially remain unchanged, with England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, and Italy all competing for the title.

Points accrued in their respective championships would be carried forward into an enlarged league in which sides from the two hemispheres meet.

The top two teams from each hemisphere would then enter semifinals and a final to decide the overall Nations Championship winner.

The bottom-placed sides in the Six Nations and the Rugby Championship would face playoffs against the top-placed sides from two lower international leagues, each with six teams, to decide promotion and relegation.

The competition would not run during World Cup years, and a shortened format will be adopted in years of the British & Irish Lions tour.

More to follow.

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