New Zealand Rugby chairman Brent Impey is far from happy with World Rugby’s decision to call-off their Nations Championship plans.
World Rugby announced yesterday that it would no longer try and implement the concept of the Nations Championship, but Impey, who is also Sanzaar’s chairman is disappointed to say the least.
“The Nations Championship was a golden opportunity to grow the game internationally but is seemingly lost. Sanzaar remains convinced that such a revamped international calendar is the right course of action supported by professional cross-border competitions such as Super Rugby and the various European premierships,” he said in a statement reported by the New Zealand Herald.
Impey went on to confirm that South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina had committed to continuing to discuss the concept.
“All Sanzaar unions signed the letter of offer with World Rugby to continue negotiations. Sanzaar has been consistent in its support of the concept as we believed that this was an important decision for the future of the world game. Furthermore, the ability to have promotion/relegation in both hemispheres as proposed by World Rugby is a principle position with which Sanzaar agreed. That would have created a meaningful pathway and aspirations for emerging nations,” he added.
The main stumbling block appears to have been the possibility of promotion and relegation which worried Scotland and Italy in particular, but without it Tier Two nations such as Fiji and Samoa would be excluded.
However, even though Impey was disappointed he took time to announce that Sanzaar have been holding talks over the future of Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship.
“While World Rugby has led discussions around the Nations Championship concept, Sanzaar and its member unions, have been in constant and positive dialogue with our broadcast partners to secure the future of Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship,” he finished.
New Zealand Rugby was not as hard on World Rugby’s decision with CEO Steve Tew stating that the challenge was always going to be hard when it involved so many parties.
“We want to acknowledge the tireless efforts and leadership from World Rugby to get the proposal to this point. Creating a new international competition was always going to be a challenging conversation for world rugby nations. The challenges have been complex and multi-faceted as we sought to find a model that balanced demands of fans, with the welfare of all players, growing the commercial strength of our competition and ensuring we were providing a pathway for other nations. While there were some serious issues to be resolved such as the varying positions on promotion/relegation, New Zealand Rugby remained committed to continuing dialogue to see if these could be overcome for the greater good of the game,” he said.
It remains to be seen whether or not World Rugby will try and develop a new competition for international sides, but what is clear is that even though the Nations Championship had it’s flaws many still backed it to be successful in the long run.
