A new international rugby tournament for men will begin in 2026.
On Tuesday, it was decided to launch the long-awaited new international men's competition outside of the Rugby World Cup in 2026.
Bill Beaumont, the chairman of World Rugby, praised it as "an historic moment for our sport that sets us up collectively for success."
Sebastian Pineyrua, the president of South America Rugby, issued a dire warning prior to the vote: "It's the death of rugby."
The Rugby World Cup will include 24 teams in Australia in 2027, marking the competition's first expansion since 1999. A new round of 16 in the knockout stage will follow a condensed four-week pool stage. It is unknown where the four new teams will originate from.
There are 12 teams in the new men's competition, which is also known as the Nations Championship, Nations League, or World League.
The Rugby Championship teams (Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) will compete against the Six Nations teams (England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales), as well as two teams that are expected to be Japan and Fiji.
Beginning in 2026, they will convene during the regular July and November test dates every two years.
Starting in 2026, World Rugby will run a second division with 12 clubs that has not yet been established. Promotion and relegation will begin in 2030.
Next year, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, the United States, Canada, and Japan will all participate in the biennial Pacific Nations Cup. The previous two appearances of all six were in 2019 and 2015.
When Japan and Fiji are set to leave for the new Nations Championship in 2026, South America Rugby previously stated that it turned down an invitation to participate in the Pacific Nations Cup because it anticipated the competition's value to decline once more.
To boost their competitiveness and level the playing field at rugby's premier competition, all of the tier two teams competing in the current World Cup in France pleaded for more games against the tier one teams from the Six Nations and Rugby Championship.
World Rugby made it clear on Tuesday that "a significant uplift in the number of crossover matches between unions in the respective divisions are included in the global calendar in the two other years, providing performance nations with annual competition certainty against high performance unions."
However, World Rugby made no more explanations, and the new competitions will limit the tier two teams' access to the top teams even further until the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
Only two weeks prior, Beaumont declared that the new international schedule "will benefit the many, not the few" at the conclusion of the pool stage in France, where nations like Fiji, Portugal, Samoa, and newcomer Chile excelled.
"The likes of Portugal, Samoa, Tonga, Uruguay, Chile and Georgia may be gone, but they are certainly not forgotten," remarked Beaumont. "We must, and will, do everything we can to provide greater certainty and opportunity of regular high-level competition for these teams."
The new international contests, according to South American Pineyrua, won't benefit tier two clubs and will only benefit tier one teams.
He recently warned the Daily Mail that it would "kill rugby." In four or five years, it will be impossible to compete with those teams. They will rise, while the others will fall.
Agustin Pichot, a former vice-chairman of World Rugby, also stated to the Daily Mail that he thought "the old boys club" of tier one teams solely had their own interests in mind.
The Rugby Championship is in one corner, and the Six Nations is in the other. It's survival, self-preservation," Pichot remarked. The system is set up to safeguard the core. They must realize that greater is better, but they are unwilling to take that chance. However, they are already in danger. Financially speaking, they are in the red.
The definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing and expecting different results. If Uruguay doesn't play even one meaningful game throughout their four-year stay, what is the point of their presence? They will be destroyed during the opening week of the 2027 World Cup. Then they'll play well, and everyone will remark on how wonderful it was to see Uruguay's vibrant spirit. The same thing occurs every four years.
For the first time, women's international rugby will have designated test windows starting in 2026, with seven weeks allotted for regional championships like the Women's Six Nations and eight weeks allotted for international matches.
