Nations Championship on course to launch in 2026

A Nations Championship could start as soon as 2026, it has been confirmed, as World Rugby disclosed “positive discussions” had taken place between the leading powerbrokers in the game.

Plans for the biennial tournament, which would be held in years with no World Cup or British and Irish Lions tour, were first proposed in 2019, but shelved due to opposition from players’ unions.

But now Alan Gilpin, the head of World Rugby, has said the deadlock is close to being broken after International Rugby Players joined talks with the Six Nations boards, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and World Rugby.

“There have been positive discussions with all our colleagues in the Six Nations Unions and the Sanzaar unions,” he said. “There is real positive intent. We are heading towards a target date of 2026.”

It is hoped that the new competition, which divides the leading 24 countries into two divisions of 12, will aid the development of second-tier nations.

“Part of our responsibility is that there is more meaningful competition across international windows, but what does that mean for USA, Japan, Fiji, Uruguay and Georgia,” Gilpin said. “Our big focus in the next 12 months is building out the supporting models to give them certainty.”

It is also hoped that the plan will help World Rugby gain a foothold in the lucrative American market. The World Cup will be held in the United States in 2031. “We can use the plan we are putting in place to mean that North America is a really big market for the sport, and that means it is a really big market for the Premiership, EPCR, Top 14 and all the unions,” Gilpin said.

“They have bought into that vision and that is what has allowed us to do what we have done in the last year. The hard part is the next phase and what it will look like in terms of what those compromises are,” he added.