Rugby’s chance to keep its feet

International rugby union could be about to take a real step forward and there are two countries set to be elevated to the big table.

The 2019 World Cup proved Japan was a so-called Tier One nation Picture: Getty Images

International rugby union could be about to take a real step forward, but hang on and let’s not get ahead of ourselves here because someone is bound to mess it up. Almost every story regarding rugby administration comes with this caveat and it certainly applies today.

However, this time, finally, it seems progress is in the offing because, as revealed, the rugby world could be about to embrace change. There are, as ever, myriad reasons that will work against it, yet, this time, there are rather more that will work in its favour.

The subject here is the world international rugby calendar and the chances of taking something that is messy, uncommercial and doesn’t really hang together with anything more than a bit of tattered history and transforming it into a bright new competition.

Those who have been paying attention will note that it isn’t really that new at all. Rugby’s leaders came back from a historic world summit in San Francisco in 2017 believing that they had defined the blueprint for the future.

They then spent the next five years disagreeing over what that was.

They have spent recent years moving slowly towards the concept of the “Nations Championship” and they have spent most of them disagreeing about what that could be, too.

However, they have now worked away at the hard edges and converge on Dublin with the opportunity of finalising a solution.

The answer, for now, is Japan and Fiji. It has to be. Whatever final format this new Nations Championship takes, it has to favour Japan and Fiji.

In other words, rugby’s elite will finally make room for the leaders of the chasing pack.

Among much else, the 2019 Rugby World Cup was an extended essay on Japan’s national rugby team, the Brave Blossoms, and why they should stand shoulder to shoulder with the big countries who have been traditionally tagged as “Tier One”.

Japan’s wins over Ireland and Scotland were transcendent moments that proved a point they had already made four years earlier against South Africa; they are ready for Tier One.

That World Cup was also, somehow, an argument in favour of Fiji -– the very fact that Fiji underperformed seemed to prove that, with better preparation, they could make a proper impact on the latter stages of the competition too.

Japan and Fiji. Post 2019, those two bright lights then seemed to fade. That was partly a Covid thing. World Rugby now has the opportunity to switch them on for good.

International rugby has long been diligently supervising a system that prevented teams such as Japan and Fiji joining the top tier. Even aside from the fact that Japan represents a phenomenal commercial opportunity for the game and its participants, is there still anyone who wishes to maintain that old status quo?

What we know about the new, suggested Nations Championship format is that it will maintain a link between the elite nations and the challenging nations.

Japan and Fiji are the first to enjoy an elevation to the high table; the plans appear to leave the door open for others to follow.

This is a step forward, which the game has to make.

It is not a giant stride, and it is being very tentatively taken, but rugby’s administrators owe it to the game not to trip up yet another time.

The Times