The potential new competition has started a debate
A rugby club World Cup is on the cards and is reportedly going to start from 2028.
It will involved 16 clubs, representing the Champions Cup, Super Rugby and Japan. The new competition, first reported by the Guardian, has started a debate on whether rugby needs another domestic tournament.
Read more: Club World Cup could cause issues
Here both sides of that discussion are represented. Have a read and see what you make of the topic.
YES – Donnacha Ryan (assistant coach at La Rochelle)
“That is the beauty of sport, you want to test yourselves against the best and it definitely brings another dimension to rugby. It would be fantastic to see how the northern hemisphere clubs go when they are tested against the southern hemisphere ones because there are different ways of playing and it something the players would love. It would bring rugby to different areas of the world and that can only be a good thing for the game.
“A lot of coaches I would have had over the years were southern hemisphere coaches and you get to understand their philosophies as well – the likes of Joe Schmidt, Rassie Erasmus and Rob Penney – it would be a great challenge as a coach. We obviously look at a lot of the southern hemisphere games and I am sure they look at the northern hemisphere games so the gap is definitely a lot tighter. It is always good to learn from them as well as testing your own skills against them too.
“It would be interesting but at the same time the organisation is very important because player welfare is very important. Long trips do take their toll on players and having to play big intensive games as well takes it out of the squad. That is something that should be at the forefront of anything new that is introduced because player welfare is paramount if you are trying to put more games on. The other side of that is if the season becomes longer. Nowadays the ball is in play a lot more than it used to be, so if it is managed well and in collaboration with the players’ unions that is the most important things.”
No – Rob Baxter (Exeter Chiefs director of rugby)
“As much as we might all want to do it you do have to be able to afford it.
“If someone says to me that they’ve got the finances in place to cover everyone’s costs and travel, there’s a TV deal so that all the clubs involved get millions of pounds, and that helps all the clubs become viable, thriving businesses, then I’d say it’s exactly what the game needs.
“If, as what normally happens, it’s ‘let’s try and give it a go and see if we can make it work’ then I will be very hesitant about it. You can very easily create bigger issues in the game trying to solve issues, as we’ve seen.”
“Let’s make sure it’s genuinely viable before we start adding in more competitions, more games, more travel costs. We have been to South Africa once, last year in the Champions Cup, which was very well managed but the flip side of that is trying to organise it on short turnarounds.
“Doing the old argument of ‘do it and the game will grow’ clubs in this country – you can’t take that approach. We can’t go and see if it works in four years’ time – we just can’t do that. These things have to be a little bit more genuine and ready to go before we can commit to them.
“The desire from the players and the team in this country to have a format at some stage where there is way is fantastic. There is nothing negative about interesting games of rugby is there? That is what everyone wants, but at the same time you have to make sure everyone else wants to watch it, everyone else wants to be involved in it, not just the players and the coaches.”
Download the digital edition of Rugby World straight to your tablet or subscribe to the print edition to get the magazine delivered to your door.