Nations Championship?
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It adds structure, meaning, more money for unions.
Will be interesting if this competition becomes the way for WR to confirm qualification and seeding for future world cups.
I don’t mind the comp, although it will change TRC to a 6 team comp and mirror the home and away aspect of it in alternate years.
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Georgia are the obvious losers here if there is no relegation/promotion.
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@Dan54 said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
Well I quite happy with idea of it. It pretty obvious from reading the press release RC will supply the 2 invitation teams, so Japan and Fiji probably. until 2030. The best thing is teams that travel in the July wondow etc will be coming with close to full strength teams etc.
I will add those that are aginst mandatory rest weeks for test players maybe disappointed, as teams will have to hit ground running early . Also see the likes of Tonga, Samoa becoming pretty poulay as warm up games for SH teams, so a bonus there for those countries?
And to those that say cash cow etc, probably, but would they prefer that rugby didn't try and get more money to develop game?
And reading the article posted above why would Georgia not play a top tier nation maore tha once every 4 years, surely they will be very poular warm up games for 6N teams as they are now, and after 2030 hopefully they maybe good enough to earn promotion. If WR get tier 2 comp going as proposed isn't that good? Georgia,US,Canade,Tonga, Samoa with comps that have reason. As I say it seems first thing to do is look for negatives, I will look at positives, and think it a good starting point.Not guilty
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Hmmm
So, basically, taking the existing 2 x 3 week windows - and getting the 6 hosts from each respective 'hemispheres' to play the visiting 6.
This means there is zero, nil, zip, space for e.g. Georgia to get a game as a warmup. Assuming they are left out of the invitation 2. Ditto for whoever the other unlucky 11 to 13ish ranked are. Samoa and Tonga, assuming Japan and Fiji are in.
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Wait. Actually, how does the comp work without adding the 2 'invitations' to the TRC?
It cant be an everyone plays everyone league.
Would have to be a 2 pools of 6. With a grand final.
That would mean a 6 v 6, in 3 out of the 6 international window weekends. Possibly leaving 3 weeks for others. Unless the grand final is one of those weeks. What would the other 10 teams do on grand final weekend? Play 3rd v 4th, 5th v 6th etc etc .
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@Rapido said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
Wait. Actually, how does the comp work without adding the 2 'invitations' to the TRC?
It cant be an everyone plays everyone league.
Would have to be a 2 pools of 6. With a grand final.
That would mean a 6 v 6, in 3 out of the 6 international window weekends. Possibly leaving 3 weeks for others. Unless the grand final is one of those weeks. What would the other 10 teams do on grand final weekend? Play 3rd v 4th, 5th v 6th etc etc .
Doesn't have to be a 6 v 6, as all SH teams would play in RC (one round) plus say Japan and Fiji, then NH teams would play 3 teams in july, and then alternate in Nov internationals? So baiscally you have to lots of 3 weeks outside the RC or 6Ns.
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@Dan54 said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@Rapido said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
Wait. Actually, how does the comp work without adding the 2 'invitations' to the TRC?
It cant be an everyone plays everyone league.
Would have to be a 2 pools of 6. With a grand final.
That would mean a 6 v 6, in 3 out of the 6 international window weekends. Possibly leaving 3 weeks for others. Unless the grand final is one of those weeks. What would the other 10 teams do on grand final weekend? Play 3rd v 4th, 5th v 6th etc etc .
Doesn't have to be a 6 v 6, as all SH teams would play in RC (one round) plus say Japan and Fiji, then NH teams would play 3 teams in july, and then alternate in Nov internationals? So baiscally you have to lots of 3 weeks outside the RC or 6Ns.
Sorry, what?
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Scrap it now
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@Rapido said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@Dan54 said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@Rapido said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
Wait. Actually, how does the comp work without adding the 2 'invitations' to the TRC?
It cant be an everyone plays everyone league.
Would have to be a 2 pools of 6. With a grand final.
That would mean a 6 v 6, in 3 out of the 6 international window weekends. Possibly leaving 3 weeks for others. Unless the grand final is one of those weeks. What would the other 10 teams do on grand final weekend? Play 3rd v 4th, 5th v 6th etc etc .
Doesn't have to be a 6 v 6, as all SH teams would play in RC (one round) plus say Japan and Fiji, then NH teams would play 3 teams in july, and then alternate in Nov internationals? So baiscally you have to lots of 3 weeks outside the RC or 6Ns.
Sorry, what?
Lol I thought it was pretty simple mate, wasn't I clear enough in my explanation?
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So while it's run by Sanzaar and the Six Nations, the results of those competitions don't actually have anything to do with the new league.
Instead, over the two international windows, the 12 teams will be split into two pools, North and South, and the final ranking at the end of the year will be determined by how you perform in your six matches against the teams from the other pool.
It's a bit like the fool-proof system they used during Super Rugby Trans- Ta$man.
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Looking just at the 6 nations. Maybe they will play 5 teams in the 6 nations. The other 6 teams will be played in 2 lots of three. Three in the SH and three later in the yr in the NH. Maybe the top 4 teams will then play the semi and final after the NH games
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Sounds like a grab for cash. Don't like the way it may dilute the World Cup, it is a pretty big deal hosting a Rugby World Cup and Australia hosting it in 2027 won't be too happy if the integrity of their tournament is affected. Hopefully more thought is put into it.
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@Winger said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
Looking just at the 6 nations. Maybe they will play 5 teams in the 6 nations. The other 6 teams will be played in 2 lots of three. Three in the SH and three later in the yr in the NH. Maybe the top 4 teams will then play the semi and final after the NH games
No, Six Nations games aren't counted - the only games that are counted are the cross-Hemisphere games in July and November. There's then likely to be a final game played at the end of November between the top two ranked sides (though unclear if this will be just one per hemisphere).
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@sparky said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
Was this really the best they could come up with? Disappointingly unimaginative and lacking ambition. Really just an attempt to hang onto the status quo.
I dunno. I think we all agree there has to be a (better) way to get up-and-coming teams into the top tier and the 6N's and TRC structure makes that hard to do - if not politically impossible.
This isn't perfect, but at least provides that opportunity via promotion/relegation from a distinct 2nd tier competition. Agree with some of the critics that a few tweaks around the invitational teams and timescales would improve things though.
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Juses fucking christ.
The lack of comprehension of the proposal... fucking spectacular.
I was about to start copy/pasting posts and explaining what was wrong with them, but... drunk, tired, and there's just so fucking MANY.
And NO - that's not the fault of WR... that's YOUR fucking comprehension skills. ie: ... -
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The best 'competition' would see teams split up into grades of maybe seven teams. Games played in other competitions count towards the competition, and extra games would be arranged for each year to ensure every team played every other team within their grade at least once (only the first match played between each side would could towards points). That means you'd need at most three games in July and three games in November (conveniently, the number of games in the international window) to determine a winner, but you could have a play-off at the end of the season too.
At the end of each season, the bottom team in each grade swaps with the top team from the grade below.
This would ensure the current tier one teams all still get games against top opposition (e.g. Wales would play Scotland, England, Ireland, France and Italy in the Six Nations, with the game against Italy counting towards points in the new competition, and then play Samoa, Fiji, Japan, Georgia and Argentina during the July and November windows. They could still arrange an additional game in November against the All Blacks or Springboks etc).
12 teams is simply too many, and boxes out every team that isn't quite in that upper echelon, whereas seven or eight teams per grade would see more interaction between T1 and T2 sides without seriously harming anyone's finances.
The thing is, Georgia don't need to play against all of New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and France in one calendar year - but regular games against Argentina, Wales, Italy (and even Fiji, Japan etc) would seriously boost their standings. We just need to see more interaction between the lower T1 teams and the upper T2 teams, and the lower T2 teams and the upper T3 teams (and between the T2 sides, who seem to mostly only play matches against teams from within their geographic area) etc.
G1
Ireland
France
New Zealand
South Africa
Scotland
England
AustraliaG2
Argentina
Wales
Japan
Georgia
Samoa
Fiji
ItalyG3
Tonga
Portugal
Uruguay
United States
Romania
Spain
Namibia
