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Six Nations have their say on the 'Springboks joining' speculation
By PA
Six Nations chief executive Ben Morel insists there are no plans to add the Springboks to the championship with an enhancement of the July and November windows seen as a greater priority. South Africa have been persistently linked with the tournament despite signing a contract to appear in the Rugby Championship until 2030.
SA Rugby chief executive Jurie Roux stated last month that his world champion Springboks would be interested in joining the Six Nations, but at Tuesday’s Autumn Nations Series launch Morel ruled out an invitation for the foreseeable future.
“It’s not currently a question. My understanding is that South Africa are committed to the Rugby Championship and at the same time our focus is on July and November,” Morel said.
“The Six Nations has added to and reduced its number of teams in very few moments during its 140 years, so it is something that we would be very cautious of doing.”
The Six Nations organises the autumn campaign – now named the Autumn Nations Series – and is also involved in the new season structure discussions for the international calendar after the 2023 World Cup.
It is hoped that by packaging the summer tours in July and the annual November Tests together, a global competition would be created. “We’re pretty happy with what we have, but we’re sure it could be improved. If that leads to a final or some sort of ranking, that would be a positive,” Morel said.
“It is complex but the Six Nations are playing a leading role in what the solution could be. Some sort of final is exciting and that is what the fans want to see.”
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The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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