WHERE HEMISPHERES COLLIDE, scream the London Underground billboards, alongside marketing for West End musicals and blockbuster movies. Dramatic imagery of Maro Itoje, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu turns heads on the escalators. SIX MATCHES. THREE DAYS. TWO HEMISPHERES. ONE CHAMPION. Five-star entertainment, they promise. Buy your tickets now.
The Nations Championship, they say, has been a resounding success. The Tests have been high quality, pulling together the best 12 teams in the world in rugby’s very own Super League. Players are unhappy about the amount of travel but the cheques are being banked.
But as the Nations Championship is beamed across the world, the countries outside of rugby’s 12-team elite are arriving in Europe short of money and exposure and fearing for their futures. Most players in the second-tier Nations Cup are paid less than £500 a week. Some of the management are not being paid at all.
The Nations Championship is privately owned by the Six Nations and SANZAAR (South African, New Zealand, Australian and Argentinian Rugby) – with Fiji and Japan invited to bulk out the division. The Nations Cup contains the next remaining 12 teams who qualified for next year’s World Cup – Georgia, Hong Kong, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Zimbabwe, Canada, Chile, Samoa, Tonga, the US and Uruguay.
Daily Mail Sport has spoken to Tier Two coaches throughout the rugby world who fear the new format will cause irreparable damage, with one of their most pressing concerns being blowout scores in the pool stages in Australia next year.
‘I worry that some rugby nations are going to disappear,’ warns Uruguay rugby chief Sebastian Pineyrua. ‘We didn’t make any money from our games in July. When we play Zimbabwe at Ealing in November, we will make no money. Zero.
Uruguay have qualified for their sixth World Cup next year – but face a more daunting task than ever as the growing divide in the international game threatens blowout scores
Nations like Samoa are being left behind as the Six Nations and SANZAAR teams scoop up the bulk of the money
‘The money from the ticket sales will be to pay the cost of the venue. World Rugby will pay for our travel to Europe. Economy. We have managers who work for free. The hosts or promoter pay for the hotels. There are no TV rights for us.
‘For these Tier Two nations, it’s not easy to have our top players available. Take Santiago Arata, our scrum-half. His club Castres says, “No, we will keep Arata because we are already giving players to France and he won’t progress in these games”.
‘If you’re a Tongan or Samoan and you get paid £500 a week, why are you going to fight with the president of your club to play in games that will not add value to you? This kind of division is only going to increase the gap. It’s going to be very difficult for teams in the Nations Cup to compete at the World Cup.’
Six Nations chief executive Tom Harrison described the Nations Championship as ‘a catalyst of growth for a sport that is ready to go truly global’. But the sight of Samoa and Tonga’s blockbuster Test in front of a full house at the Rugby League World Cup on Sunday should set alarm bells ringing – 13 of the players defected to league from union. In the southern hemisphere, rugby league is the sport on an upward trajectory.
‘It will be so tough for us,’ said Tonga’s union head coach Tevita Tuifua, who watched 21-year-old rising star Leka Halasima leave the Auckland-based Blues Super Rugby franchise to take up an opportunity in league. ‘The NRL is massive now and the atmosphere for the Rugby World Cup has been crazy in Tonga.
‘Looking at the big picture with our Rugby World Cup, it’s unfair that we are preparing on a Tier Two level. We’re in the same group as England and Wales – there’s a big gap in our preparation there.’
The Pacific Islands are rich with talent but the sport is suffering there. Samoa are currently voluntarily suspended from the World Rugby council after the prime minister raised concerns about its union, which was chaired by a member of the opposition party.
Known as Western Samoa until 1997, this is a nation that made two World Cup quarter-finals in 1991 and 1995, has won 15 of its 33 pool-stage matches and lost to England by just a point in 2023. But this time around they scraped through qualification, thanks to a try-bonus point in a draw with Belgium.
The sight of Samoa and Tonga’s blockbuster Test in front of a full house at the Rugby League World Cup should set alarm bells ringing – 13 of the players defected to league from union
Western Samoa’s victory over Wales in 1991 is one of the greatest upsets of all time – this is a proud rugby nation but they are now on the margins
Their Super Rugby franchise, Moana Pasifika, has folded and they have no national stadium. Their players have gathered for a training camp in York and Samoa high performance manager Ramsey Tomokino fears for the future.
‘When we don’t have big fixtures, we miss out on loads of revenue,’ says Tomokino. ‘Our players are earning two or three per cent of what a team like England get paid. It sounds tragic even talking about it.
‘We still have this problem between club and country where players feel pressure from their clubs. The great Samoa teams have had players in the Premiership and Top14. Now we don’t have many.
‘It’s a catch-22 because when we’re performing well, our players have a shop window, teams pick the guys up. We need to perform well but we need to play meaningful opposition as well.
‘The one positive is that we have fixtures that are locked in. We can beat big teams when all the factors are right. We probably should have beaten England at the last World Cup but we had that try disallowed (Samoa went on to lose 18-17).’
The new format was approved unanimously in October 2024 and promotion and relegation is due to be introduced in 2030, meaning more Tier Two nations could be given a seat at the top table by 2032.
However, Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Abi Tierney claimed it would be ‘cataclysmic’ if Wales were relegated and the proposals have been greeted with suspicion by many unions.
‘I do not believe they will bring in the relegation and promotion in the Nations Championship – forget it. It’s impossible,’ adds Pineyrua.
Nations such as Uruguay are sceptical that the Six Nations will allow Wales to be relegated to the Nations Cup
Samoa’s Moana Pasifika went toe to toe with the iconic Super Rugby franchises such as the Crusaders but have now folded
‘The Six Nations and SANZAAR owns the competition – Six Nations is not going to take the risk of having Wales out. It’s money. How could Wales play in the Six Nations while playing in the second division? Rugby is not generating enough revenue to pay the full party. That is a big issue.’
At the 2023 World Cup, Portugal became cult heroes after drawing with Georgia and beating Fiji. Their head coach Simon Mannix would like to add an additional Test with a Tier One nation but he believes it would be unrealistic to bloat the calendar any further.
‘We’ve consolidated 14th spot in the world and that’s no mean feat when you’re only really playing teams below you,’ says Mannix. ‘It’s difficult for us to move up the rankings now.
‘Physically, we couldn’t play three Tier One nations in three weeks – we wouldn’t have any players left by week three. We don’t have the depth to just keep rolling out players. There’s a romantic side to playing these teams but you’ve got to keep it real.
‘For us, the Nations Cup has been very good. This is our first year where we’ve had a semi-professional setup. We’ve got access to about 27 players to train. But those training sessions are at 7am because guys are going to work and study. We’ve got a nuclear engineer, a dentist, a doctor, finance consultants.
‘Of course, it could be a lot better. Where rugby sits today, you have the haves and the have-nots. We’re in the have-nots. There is a monopoly – the Six Nations is very much a closed shop that generates a huge amount of money. Teams like Georgia have been knocking on the door and feel shut out. I understand their frustrations.’
Over the past decade, Georgia have been the most dominant European team outside of the elite, having beaten Wales and Italy and campaigned tirelessly to be granted entry to the Six Nations.
They have sold out their national stadium in recent years but high performance director Levan Maisashvili believes progress has ground to a halt.
Portugal beat Fiji and drew with Wales at the last World Cup but their head coach admits they could not physically compete every week with top nations
Over the past decade, Georgia have beaten Wales and Italy and campaigned tirelessly to be granted entry to the Six Nations. But they believe progress has come to a halt
‘Of course the new format is bad for our development,’ says Maisashvili. ‘We don’t have quality games. If we want to develop rugby, we have to play against each other. Now we have nothing.
‘Look at any sport – only rugby is so shut and conservative. Of course, it’s a commercial thing, but there will be more commercial opportunities if you have more countries competing. Right now they are just cutting down international rugby to 12 teams.
‘We started to win games and show the people we also can be popular. People who don’t know rugby are asking: “What’s next? Do you play against the big teams?” Nothing. People who understand business will say rugby has no future in such countries.’
So as Twickenham prepares for its grandstand event, spare a thought for the rest of the rugby world.
