Nations Championship?
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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 -
@Stargazer said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@Dan54 You lost me with that last sentence.
Mate I think I lost myself, which isn't that unusual!!
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@Mr-Fish said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@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).
Yes 6N games are counted as are RC. The games in July and Nov are just crossover games!!
I really think perhaps we just need to suspend all discussion, until a draw comes out in a couple of years , so it's quite plain for all to see.lol
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@Dan54 said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@Mr-Fish said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@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).
Yes 6N games are counted as are RC. The games in July and Nov are just crossover games!!
I really think perhaps we just need to suspend all discussion, until a draw comes out in a couple of years , so it's quite plain for all to see.lol
The exact wording is:
"a new international rugby competition that will be played in the existing July and November test windows."
There's no mention anywhere of including results from the pre-existing competitions.
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@Bones said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@Kruse said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
ie: ...
The suspense
He fell asleep over his keyboard. We will find out when he's woken up by a drunken dribble in a few hours.
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This post is deleted!
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so SANZAAR...the same SANZAAR thats already 4 separate rugby organisations trying to agree on how to run a comp...is now going to have to agree...with the 6N on how to run another separate comp...seems nice a simple
as someone that would rather see more local/domestic rugby and let internationals be a real spectacle, its not for me, yet another rugby comp to follow during the same calendar year as the Club/NPC/Super/RC
can someone add a poll to the first post? would love a snap shot of who is actually a fan
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@Crazy-Horse said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@Bones said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@Kruse said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
ie: ...
The suspense
He fell asleep over his keyboard. We will find out when he's woken up by a drunken dribble in a few hours.
Shit... I can't remember what I was thinking.... let alone about to write.
I think I was meaning to list out all the misconceptions, and comparing them to the reality... but then got tired when I figured out how many there were, and left it as an attempted implying of that.
FFS - I gave Blade a bad review last night... I was smashed. -
@Dan54 said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@Mr-Fish said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@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).
Yes 6N games are counted as are RC. The games in July and Nov are just crossover games!!
I really think perhaps we just need to suspend all discussion, until a draw comes out in a couple of years , so it's quite plain for all to see.lol
Whether the 6N and RC games are included or not hasn't been clarified yet. It would maybe make sense to include these games but can see the logic of excluding them But I will wait until the full details are provided. I
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@Winger said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@Dan54 said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@Mr-Fish said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@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).
Yes 6N games are counted as are RC. The games in July and Nov are just crossover games!!
I really think perhaps we just need to suspend all discussion, until a draw comes out in a couple of years , so it's quite plain for all to see.lol
Whether the 6N and RC games are included or not hasn't been clarified yet. It would maybe make sense to include these games but can see the logic of excluding them But I will wait until the full details are provided. I
Yep mate, I read one article on it saying 6N and RC games are part of it, otherwise it would only be NH against SH. I can't be buggered finding article now. But anyway we will see all details before it starts.
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12 teams.
2x "test windows" - of 4 or 5 weeks each to play games.
Either the 6N and RC games are included - or that's going to be one hell of a schedule.One thing it pretty much ensures - the final and complete death of "tours" within a single country (other than Lions).
Each NH team will need to be playing at least 2 different countries each July, rather than a 3-game series against just 1. -
This just strikes me as rebranding the July tours down under and the November tours up to Europe with a league table. The ABs usually play about 7 tests against 6N opponents in a year anyway. It’ll be a crossover comp. Just putting nice wrapping paper on the same product.
Wonder if any teams will treat games like Leinster away. That’d be fun.
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@game_film said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
This just strikes me as rebranding the July tours down under and the November tours up to Europe with a league table. The ABs usually play about 7 tests against 6N opponents in a year anyway. It’ll be a crossover comp. Just putting nice wrapping paper on the same product.
Wonder if any teams will treat games like Leinster away. That’d be fun.
That's exactly what it is.
Sanzaar/6N seem to be concerned that people aren't interested in matches unless there's a bigger picture at stake - which I think is completely wrong.
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@Mr-Fish said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@game_film said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
This just strikes me as rebranding the July tours down under and the November tours up to Europe with a league table. The ABs usually play about 7 tests against 6N opponents in a year anyway. It’ll be a crossover comp. Just putting nice wrapping paper on the same product.
Wonder if any teams will treat games like Leinster away. That’d be fun.
That's exactly what it is.
Sanzaar/6N seem to be concerned that people aren't interested in matches unless there's a bigger picture at stake - which I think is completely wrong.
Maybe for us tragics, that call then test matches. But I think there is a big casual crowd out there who might not. Encouraged by soccer corrupted press calling them fucking friendlies
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@Mr-Fish said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@game_film said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
This just strikes me as rebranding the July tours down under and the November tours up to Europe with a league table. The ABs usually play about 7 tests against 6N opponents in a year anyway. It’ll be a crossover comp. Just putting nice wrapping paper on the same product.
Wonder if any teams will treat games like Leinster away. That’d be fun.
That's exactly what it is.
Sanzaar/6N seem to be concerned that people aren't interested in matches unless there's a bigger picture at stake - which I think is completely wrong.
In fairness, it has worked for cricket. The fundamental difference though is that a win in a Test is hard; and incentivising wins with a wider framework is a Good Thing generally. Rugby though ... I think it may help with marketing and promotion of the game, and god knows we need it. Still feels weird to play this in world cup year though, or when we have Lions. PLaying on a 2 year cycle would seem a lot better I reckon
And you could well get weirdness, like winning TRC or 6N not translating to making playoffs in the overall comp. Does this mean that 6N teams will have to play 2 or 3 out of NZ SA AUS ARG down here July? Travel could be brutal, and could be the end of traditional tours as we know them.
Feels forced, but hope it works out well.
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@nzzp said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@Mr-Fish said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
@game_film said in Six Nations, SANZAAR New tournaments in 2026:
This just strikes me as rebranding the July tours down under and the November tours up to Europe with a league table. The ABs usually play about 7 tests against 6N opponents in a year anyway. It’ll be a crossover comp. Just putting nice wrapping paper on the same product.
Wonder if any teams will treat games like Leinster away. That’d be fun.
That's exactly what it is.
Sanzaar/6N seem to be concerned that people aren't interested in matches unless there's a bigger picture at stake - which I think is completely wrong.
In fairness, it has worked for cricket. The fundamental difference though is that a win in a Test is hard; and incentivising wins with a wider framework is a Good Thing generally. Rugby though ... I think it may help with marketing and promotion of the game, and god knows we need it. Still feels weird to play this in world cup year though, or when we have Lions. PLaying on a 2 year cycle would seem a lot better I reckon
And you could well get weirdness, like winning TRC or 6N not translating to making playoffs in the overall comp. Does this mean that 6N teams will have to play 2 or 3 out of NZ SA AUS ARG down here July? Travel could be brutal, and could be the end of traditional tours as we know them.
Feels forced, but hope it works out well.
The NH sides will have to play three of NZ, SA, Aus, Arg, Fiji or Japan - but the lowest ranked SH side won't play their matches at home (unclear if that's all of them or just some of them), they'll instead have to play their 'home' matches in Africa to decrease travel for the NH sides.
So likely England, for example, would play Argentina in Argentina, South Africa in South Africa, and either Japan or Fiji in South Africa.
Meanwhile, Ireland would play NZ in NZ, Oz in Oz, and either Fiji in Fiji or Japan in Japan.
