RWC 2027 Australia

[Omar Comin']

Love to see it. More rising to competitive levels the better. Get the 2nd tournament going with 4 sides below the 6 nations and bring in relegation. Georgia are about to go past Wales in the ranking for what they're worth...

I don't think any of the 6 nations unions will ever allow promotion/relegation, the cost of relegation would be too high. Maybe if it changed to 4 teams per division (home and away within your division each year), so that the 2nd division was still strong and commercially valuable. But I think expansion would be more likely.

Another option would be to hold a rugby euros cup style tournament every 4 years (between world cups). Could easily do that with 12 teams now.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

I don't think any of the 6 nations unions will ever allow promotion/relegation, the cost of relegation would be too high. Maybe if it changed to 4 teams per division (home and away within your division each year), so that the 2nd division was still strong and commercially valuable. But I think expansion would be more likely.

Another option would be to hold a rugby euros cup style tournament every 4 years (between world cups). Could easily do that with 12 teams now.

Yeah it's another one of those off season hypothetical.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

I don't think any of the 6 nations unions will ever allow promotion/relegation, the cost of relegation would be too high. Maybe if it changed to 4 teams per division (home and away within your division each year), so that the 2nd division was still strong and commercially valuable. But I think expansion would be more likely.

Another option would be to hold a rugby euros cup style tournament every 4 years (between world cups). Could easily do that with 12 teams now.

I think they should introduce a 7th qualifier slot. The current 6 being the owners of the tournament would remain permanent fixtures but the winner ofcthe REC would assume the qualifier spot playing in the '7Ns' before then playing against the winner of the next REC to remain.

 

[liquor box]

Georgia, Spain, Portugal and Romania now all qualified - the next 2 weeks will determine how they are seeded as Europe 1-4. Europe 5 (either Netherlands or Belgium barring a huge upset) will make the final qualifying tournament.

Hopefully Spain didn't play anyone ineligible this time!! They have more potential than most to bridge the tier 2 to tier 1 gap.

Are they really tier 2?

I think there are at least 3 tiers, I would stop tier 2 at Wales and have Japan on the border of 2 and 3.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Are they really tier 2?

I think there are at least 3 tiers, I would stop tier 2 at Wales and have Japan on the border of 2 and 3.

You're assuming tiers are performance based.

 

[Adam84]

At an official level, World Rugby no longer use the Tier system for test teams, and towards the end it became more a reflection of professional structures in place in that country rather than the on-field performance anyway, so classifying teams into Tiers is a bit arbitrary

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

I think we hear it more in Aus due to League and it actually having some meaning in regards to player movement and ability to play Origin and for a Tier 2 country but you can't a Tier 1 and Origin.

 

[Adam84]

For what it's worth, JFRU was classified a High Performance Union back in 2023 which meant they have 3 votes on the council alongside the other 10 countries from SANZAAR and 6Nations. This term; 'High Performance Union' essentially replaced what Tier 1 used to be.