Rugby’s proposed World League looks set to shut out ambition-filled tier two teams even more
Every Rugby World Cup springs the same issue. Tier two coaches pleading for more games with tier one teams to become more competitive, to try and level a lopsided playing field.
“If we could know yearly that we would be playing tests against New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and maybe Argentina, the world would see a fast-tracking of Samoa and Pacific rugby into tier one. And we would be a real threat come semifinal and final time in future World Cups.”
Samoa coach Seilala Mapusua? Nope, Samoa coach Michael Jones in 2007, the previous time the tournament was in France.
Tier two teams — those teams not in the Six Nations and Rugby Championship — don’t have any clout in the World Rugby boardroom or much money. They play for the love of their people, love of their country, and love of the national team jersey. But between Rugby World Cups, they drop into obscurity.
Not much has changed for tier two teams 16 years after the comments by rugby great Jones, and not much is expected to change.
The new World League has yet to be announced but reports suggest it will start in 2026 with 12 teams from the Six Nations, Rugby Championship, Japan and Fiji. The north will play the south plus Japan in the July and November test windows in 2026, 2028 and 2030. The competition primarily to generate more money will be ring-fenced.
The other tier two teams will have their own competition, yet to be revealed.
But Sudamerica Rugby president Sebastián Piñeyrúa, also a World Rugby council member, told El Observador newspaper last month that South America doesn’t want to join a competition with Asia and Pacific teams. Piñeyrúa didn’t see any benefit seeing as Japan and Fiji would be leaving for the World League in 2026.
“Once that league is made, the possibilities of crossover between tier one and two will be much smaller because all the (test window) dates will be occupied,” Piñeyrúa said.
He added the likes of Uruguay and Chile preferred to try and strengthen their South America from within, raise the standards of Brazil and Paraguay with the reliable support of Argentina, and appeal to the United States and Canada to one day revive the Americas championship.
That idea is backed by Pablo Lemoine, who coached Chile to its first Rugby World Cup in France. Chile had never played games so hard, at such pace, in front of such big crowds. But Los Condores were a big hit.
“Every country is asking for more competition. We all want to go to the World Cup and show a better level,” Lemoine said. “But we have to look for it ourselves.”
Lemoine said that involved building their high-performance program including the sevens team, and keep improving in Super Rugby Americas, their players’ professional entry. “Getting into tournaments like this (World Cup) is the third step,” he said.
The good news for tier two is that the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia looks like being expanded to 24 teams from the present 20. World Rugby is in a bind in regard to the United States, which failed to qualify for France. There’s no guarantee the Eagles will qualify for 2027 either, which would mean 12 years away from the showpiece by the time the U.S. hosts the 2031 World Cup.
Expansion will ease the qualifying path for the likes of the U.S. and Spain.
But it also means more mouths to feed for World Rugby.
Expansion is not on the horizon for the Six Nations and Rugby Championship.
The Six Nations added Italy 23 years ago without creating more matchdays and thereby annoying European clubs, and has rejected all other door-knockers.
Georgia, the only European country beside Wales where rugby is the national sport, has won 14 of the last 16 Europe second-tier titles, and beat Italy and Wales last year. The Lelos had eight tier one matches in this Rugby World Cup cycle, although any benefits weren’t obvious as they failed to win a match at a Rugby World Cup for the first time in 20 years.
On the other hand, Portugal played one tier one team in the cycle and achieved its first win at its first World Cup appearance in 16 years. Os Lobos have returned home to throngs, have a presidential palace welcome coming, and are guests at the Portugal soccer team game against Slovakia.
It’s a lot harder to expand the Rugby Championship to include, say, Japan and Fiji. The weekends are available if teams played each other only once like the Six Nations but the travel is already horrendous for New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina, who are spread across 16 time zones.
There aren’t enough fixture dates each year to satisfy everyone. The July and November test windows offer six to eight playing weekends and tier one teams schedule each other first, beholden to their TV pay-masters out of financial necessity. New Zealand Rugby, even with rugby’s greatest drawcard, the All Blacks, made a loss of NZ$47 million last year. South Africa had a pre-tax loss of $139,000.
England has already scheduled the Springboks for November next year. England has been playing tests since 1871, but Chile was only its 20th new opponent last month in Lille. Chile has played 25 countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted schedules and closed borders to many teams. Japan, groomed to make the quarterfinals for the first time at its home World Cup in 2019, played only 17 tests in this World Cup cycle but 10 were tier one. Japan was eliminated in the pool stage.
Fiji had only seven tier one tests, and was the only tier two side in France to beat a tier one team, Australia by 22-15. Fiji’s quarterfinal appearance is only the third instance by a tier two team in the professional era, after Fiji in 2007 and Japan in 2019.
Tonga beat Romania and lost heavily to Ireland, South Africa and Scotland, and ‘Ikale Tahi coach Toutai Kefu lamented his side making “tier two mistakes that tier one don’t make.”
“We play six games a year, maybe one or two a year against tier one nations,” Kefu said. “Tier one teams play maybe 15. It is hard to compete against well-oiled machines.”
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AP Rugby World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby