Six Nations heads for talks on relegation
After years of dismissing the idea as a non-starter, they have bowed to calls from within their own ranks by agreeing to conduct a comprehensive ‘overhaul’ of the tournament.
Scotland and Wales are understood to be in the vanguard of a shift in policy which could clear the way for the Six Nations expanding its frontiers to Eastern Europe by granting Georgia and Romania the right to play their way into the event.
This follows Bill Beaumont’s admission as the newly-elected chairman of World Rugby that the Six Nations may have to be pushed back two months until April as part of a global season.
England’s 1980 Grand Slam captain had chaired the Six Nations since 2012, a period when chief executive John Feehan articulated the committee’s repeated rejection of any move from its February-March habitat as ‘non-negotiable’, not least for commercial reasons.
The Rugby Paper understands that some member Unions have forced action as a response to calls for examination of three issues – the rescheduling of the 15-match championship, bonus points and promotion-relegation.
They believe the winds of change in the game make the time ripe for a two-tier Six Nations.
“Questions are being asked that challenge the status quo,” a source told TRP. “Now at last they are going to take a serious look at giving the best countries outside the Six Nations the chance of being allowed in.”
Outgoing World Rugby chairman, Bernard Lapasset, has already called for the tournament to “open up and take on a relegation and promotion system, either directly or via play-off. We must quickly give a vision, a hope for the other teams out there”.
Italy, whose collection of wooden spoons makes them most vulnerable to a play-off against the champions of the second-tier European Nations’ Cup (Georgia), have accused Lapasset of “looking for votes” in his new role heading the Paris bid for the 2024 Olympics.
PETER JACKSON
