When it comes to this year's Rugby World Cup, it has been a mixed bag in terms of their fortunes of the 'tier-two' nations.
The likes of Uruguay and Portugal have been praised for their performances during the tournament, putting it up to teams with far bigger resources at their disposal. In contrast, sides such as Romania have been on the receiving end of a number of heavy defeats.
In any case, it's clear that more needs to be done to help those teams progress moving forward. It is obvious that the authorities have been overlooking the development of the game in nations at that level, with changes to the global calendar long overdue.
Those teams rarely get the opportunity to play the world's best sides, something that is needed if they are to improve in the long-term.
Ex-England man suggests changes to The Rugby Championship
A number of different ideas have been put forward as to how World Rugby could get the tier-two nations more involved in the rugby calendar.
A new competition involving both northern and southern hemisphere teams is set to get underway in 2026, with suggestions that the new league format could involved some sort of promotion/relegation. However, even that is not considered enough by some.
Writing on Rugby Pass, former England outhalf Andy Goode said that The Rugby Championship in particular needs to step up when it comes to involving more teams.
There should be more onus on the top nations in world rugby to help less established nations even if it isn’t financially beneficial for them or the sport will shrink rather than grow in the long run.
Fiji have beaten Australia for the first time in 69 years at this tournament, are everyone’s second team and have benefitted from some changes made in recent years with a team in Super Rugby and more structure to their game as a result.
The big question on everyone’s lips is whether they’re going to be admitted into The Rugby Championship, though, and the answer is they should be in there already but they probably don’t bring enough to the table financially.
A promotion/relegation play-off should be brought into the Six Nations but The Rugby Championship just has no excuse not to expand, especially with the Wallabies struggling badly now and South Africa with their eyes on the northern hemisphere.
You can read the article in full here.
The Rugby Championship was expanded back in 2012 to bring Argentina onboard, with it being expected that Fiji will be the next nation to join the competition. However, there is certainly room to add more teams, especially if South Africa push through with their aim to join the Six Nations.
It will be interesting to see how things unfold over the next couple of years.
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