A Seventh Nation in Six Nations Rugby is Happening, AND HERE’S WHY! 

**** I just want to offer my apologies **** I clearly misread during my research, the championship sides coming in to the world rugby competition in 2026 aren’t from Europe, they’re from SANZAAR Championship. South Africa, Argentina, New Zealand, and Australia. I promise to do better in future 😔

Rugby should be doing all in its power to grow the game... Europe, South America, Pacific Islands, Africa... Kenya are amazing at sevens, for example... growing the game is how you get more money long term!

1) Love our Saffas friends and I'm glad they are with us in the URC, BUT it would sincerely be the worst idea ever to add them to the 6N. It would just kill what makes international rugby so great (6N/RC on one side and test rugby/World Cup on the other). It would dilute everything. 2) A relegation system won't happen simply because of $$$. The 6 federations greatly depend from the 6N money. A relegation for Wales, Italy, Scotland or Ireland would instantly kill their domestic rugby. France and England might survive a bit but it surely wouldn't be pretty to watch. 3) This tournament is almost 150 years old. That + the fact that the 6 countries are all neighbors are what make this competition so special. Especially for the lads from the home nations, they surely would never accept a format that may prevent them from playing each other to compete for the Triple Crowns (or Calcutta cup for SCO/ENG). It was World Rugby's job to sort things out to help the game to grow and this new incoming Nations League was the opportunity. But they failed miserably by only allowing the promo/relegation system to start from 2030 and not directly in 2026. Such a shame for the Tier 2 teams.

I'm an American who hasn't watched a single game or rugby or even really care about it, but i watched the whole video, good content man!

No Way should SA. Join. Let Africa build its own African Tournament. The wooden Spoon Winners in top tier be Relegated and winner of B tier come up. Not Complicated

Romania had its strong years, but the cream of Tier Two is clearly Georgia. Yes, the RWC appearance was not great at all, but Georgia dominates Tier Two the way Italy used to until they made 6 Nations.

For me the six nations should be a European competition. I’d prefer to see other tier 2 European teams growing and developing through being added.

The main critisism of the Six Nations from other teams is they don’t get to test themselves against the best. If there was a European Championship along the lines of football. And Six Nations teams participated in European qualifiers for World Cups (No automatic qualifying for next tournament for third or better in pool stage) the game could actually be given a chance to grow outside tier 1 nations. If they did that they could keep the Six Nations to themselves. And they could use the qualifiers to give new guys a chance or the U20s

South Africa no. South Africa please God no.

Well put together - surprised that you only have 678 subscribers. Make that 679 ... I can going to check out your other content. Subbed😃👍

Editing is on point man, subbed.

Great content and editing! Thank you for the video

Great video - above and beyond your subscriber count

Keep the euro teams playing euro teams. The Southern hemisphere has its own nations comps. Having SA muddying the 6 nations would be stupid. There are so many countries in Europe that could benefit with a promo relegation comp that that is where the growth should happen for Europe.

Questionning Italy's involvement only under the prism of the win/lost rate is totaly misleading. Of course from that point of view they don't deserve their seat in the tournament at all. In the worsts years, let's say, 2018-2021, anyone could get the bonus point before half-time with their B team. Fortunatly, it had never been that bad before, far from it. They won 2 games in 2007 and 2 games in 2013, and around those years, they beat france twice, wales once and scotland quite regularly. Most important, they were often close to win other matches or at least, almost always gave a good challenge, and one-sides games were pretty rare. You can't tell to a nation who trhought these 2 decades gave the game players like Dominguez, Troncon, Bergamasco brothers, Lo Cicero, Parisse, Castrogiovani, Masi, Lamaro, Garbisi, Capuozzo... To go down and put 70 points to Belgium and Germany.

I've always thought the six nations should work on the bottom team being demoted to the tier 2 European tournament and the Winner of that said tournament promoted to the six nations, which would heat up both contests and give tier 2 sides more experience of world class rugby. It's got to be good for the game, hasn't it?

Well put together. New sub

One of Italy problems was by the time they joined the 6 nations the golden generation had retired or were over the hill. They never really had a FH for years.

Lol adding the springboks will just mean no other team will list that trophy again

The 'Cosy Club' could find themselves very much on the back foot, much the way cricket did with the advent of Kerry Packer or the Indian T20 comp.

Expanding to more nations could be incredibly complicated. It could be a boon to fans who get to watch more high level rugby, but it also could create burnout. For the business side of things, you create a lot of income opportunity, but you're also going to get puchback from the club teams these players are drawn from. The longer you take these players away, the longer those clubs have to play understrength or wait on their own money making opportunities. For a competition like this, you alao have to intelligently add opposition. You need teams that are financially viable, available at the right times, able to travel, and poasibly most importantly, have an already-existing rivalry or sense of competition with the other teams. Adding a Japan or a USA, for example, wouldn't make any sense because they have no real stake in the competition other than purely finance. Adding in a 7th team will also create the exact same environment that lead to Italy being added, with a team every week playing a team with no skin in the overall competition.

Super pleased with this one. What’s your thoughts about an extra nation ?

I suppose a Rugby weekend in Tblisi, Bucharest or even Lisbon wouldn't have the same glamorous connotations as setting off to Rome. However, for the development of the game in Europe, a play off relegation/promotion fixture should be held each year between the Championship winners and the wooden spoon side in the 6 Nations. Would make things way more interesting. Maybe do the same with 7 Nations instead to give any side promoted a better chance of staying in the top flight as it could well be a yo-yo situation for some time.

If it was the Seven Nations Championship we all know what the theme music would have to be.

The "cosy club" was built by those 6 nations. Together, these nations have built one of the most impressive competitions in rugby. When the Tri Nations was considered to be the best tournament outside of the WC, I didn't hear anything about South Africa looking to join. They should commit to the tournament they're in and make it more competitive. The rugby championship is an important tournament, losing one of its best teams would be catastrophic. If the goal is more money for a select few nations you invite South Africa or NZ. If the goal is to grow the sport and help tier 2 nations grow you create a relegation playoff. Tier 2 rugby needs more games against tier 1 nations. Adding a 7th team shouldn't even be considered. The tournament doesn't need extra games. Less is more. Another point to add is when SH teams play NH teams it's special. Special because these games don't happen often. It's easy to dilute these games if they're taking place every year.

I think you might have got this wrong, the new nations championship will feature the southern hemisphere rugby nation teams (Aus,NZ,SA & Arg) as well as Fiji and Japan. Not the championship sides. Who will be ring fenced away till at least 2030.

Great vid. League players on front was on purpose?

Como Argentino y para que siga creciendo el Rugby a nivel mundial, tendrian que sentarse y armar torneos atractivos, ya que paises como uruguay y Chile ( crecio mucho estos ultimos años) no tienen ningun torneo competitivo y meterlos en un SANZAR no tiene sentido porque no aprenderian nada, tiene que tener un torneo de TIER 2 y 3. Saludos!

Make it 8. Georgia plus a guest team to play out of a european city for two years, before a different guest team takes the next two years. Relegation, bottom team over a two year period plays at home a play off game with the top team over those two yeara from the european rugby championship. So south africa based in amsterdam for two years then, argentina based in madrid for two years. Relegation as it stands would be devastating for the game in italy, and an extra european team mitigates this somewhat, if they finish the lowest team over a two year period then lose a home playoff game to portugal/romania etc for example then that team deserves to go down. Away weekends in amsterdam, madrid and tiblisi - awesome!

Money is the single reason that it won't happen.The only real source of income the 6 have are the gate receipts and TV rights to the 6 nations and the Autumn internationals. Getting relegated would decimate those incomes. As all 6 of them have a veto on change (all changes have to be agreed unanimously), they simply will not agree to it. Adding a seventh country might seem superficially attractive, but finance raise its head again. Unless the new addition increases the income by a sixth, that means everyone taking a cut in income. It actually gets worse, the English and French players are contracted to clubs and the unions have to pay for their release to play. So any 7th country would have to increase the income by a sixth plus the additional costs of release. As many of the Georgian players play for English and French clubs, they too will be playing release fees. The best you could hope for would be something akin to "The Churchill Cup", where the Saxons, Wolfhounds and other 6 nations "A" teams played in a tournament with other European teams.

Give them time. Honestly. Argentina aren't too dissimilar to Italy in the south, always last or third. France took almost 50 years to register success. Italy are doing much better than we give them credit for. Other countries have to want to grow the game and therefore Italy must retain their spots.

You mentioned England beat Romania several times but failed to mention Scotland beat Romania 84 - 0 (12 tries to 0) just a few months ago. Romania's record is good because they don't play good teams! The tier one nations don't even send their best players. The problem that needs to be tackled is the massive division between tier 1 and tier 2 nations.

I think that a joining the Tier One and Tier Two teams for a 12-Nations competition would help a lot for the develpoment of the Rugby15. I know about the fact that teams from Romania down would be "sitting ducks" for the Four Nations, but the problem of promotion/relegation would be solved, on a way, because England, Wales, Scotland or France would never go that down. The money would help the less developed teams to form, and create professional leagues on those contries, for example. But let's see about the other ideas that were made for the next years. On the big picture, all World Cups, from the 20 - in 2027 will be 24 - 12 have his place garanteed. And if people want rugby to thrive, other countries must have their chance.

There shud be multiple levels with promotion and relegation

Great video. The solution isn't 7 Nations, but expanding to 8 Nations with 2 pools of 4 with a SuperBowl style Grand Final. Follow the Rugby Europe Championship (6 Nations B) which now has 8 Nations with 2 pools of 4.

2:20 I've been saying this for ages. The 6 Nations wooden Spoon should have to do a 3 game play-off series, against the winners of the European rugby championship. The winner gets the 6 Nations and the Loser is Demoted into the European rugby championship. 3:16 do they have this record because they're playing poor quality opponents?

you just made a movie in 9 mins that dervesds a sub

South Africa should join. At the moment, South African players have to play in two different seasons. They play club rugby in the north and international rugby in the south. My solution is simple two groups of four teams. Wales, England, Ireland, and Scotland in one group. France, Italy, South Africa, and Georgia or Romania in the second group. The group winners play a final, runners up for 3rd and 4th, and so on. It will allow the South African players an off-season. It will allow one more European team. South Africa also brings the second largest rugby viewership in the world.

South Africa makes sense. Rugby like all sports is about entertainment and revenue generated. South Africa is a top team in close time zones for TV broadcasts. But 7 or 8 teams would cause issues with an already busy calendar. Only way it would work would be for Italy or whomever is the weaker team join the 6 Nations B, and have the main 6 nations with South Africa. Obviously that would be a setback and difficult to accept, especially as Italy improves recently and might get ahead of Wales. Imagine Wales replaced by South Africa in 6 nations?

How is the sport going to grow in its current format? This tier system is sporting snobbery

Ireland for the win

Long-term forecasting videos analysing how sports can improve in genuine meaning are always welcome with me. Dithering over Italy's inclusion in the to-be 6Nations until the year 2000 was a terrible mistake of the then-IRB. Mistakes clearly haven't been learned - or accepted. Like European association football, Rugby Union's international club scene has great potential. Balancing the desire to keep regional core fanbases happy, with branching out to those who are clearly serious about inclusion - AND respect; a seemingly tricky one, for some. Yet like association football; making the top-table European club tournament a Champions'-only event would certainly streamline the approach to the sport's soul and meaning, rather than streamlining the participant origins. Personally, yes I'd love to see Georgia given inclusion in the club scene first, and on proven infrastructure, the 6Nations relegation-promotion protocol introduced. Yet at the same time, in retrospective apologies to the Italians whose 1st great team were criminally-excluded until the likes of Vacari, Dominguez and Ceccenato were at the end of their careers is also in order. So the real question I pose to the Rugby Union world is HOW do we find European Club Rugby solutions that give everyone room for progression AND inclusion? The answers that I see are a 15-club Champions' Cup, plus a 2nd tier tournament heavily geared towards successful domestic nations' clubs. Champions' Cup: 3 pools of 5 teams. Five Gameweeks; two home fixtures, two away fixtures, one Gameweek sat out by all five parties. The Three pool winners automatically qualify for Semi-finals, joined by a 1st-best pool runner-up vs 2nd-best pool runner-up play-off winner. To protect the tournament's meaning for those who have lost two game after Gameweek 3, 3rd-best pool runner-up and all three 3rd-placed pool teams enter the Challenge Cup 2nd-tier competition's Last 16 one-legged knockout phase, but BOTH 4th-placed & 5th-placed pool teams must exit all European participation for that given season. This, in conjunction with domestic club leagues in England, in France, and in the Rugby Championship, all streamlined to 10 top Division clubs; each playing nine domestic Gameweeks (five home/four away, or four home/five away), before a cut; Top half of Division cut play each other in return fixtures (in four remaining Gameweeks). Ditto for Bottom half Division cut clubs, with brutal relegation protocol. Two down (10th, 9th) automatically, 8th forced with a one-legged away play-off against 3rd in Division two, 7th a home one-legged home play-off vs 4th a Division lower. Only 6th in the bottom half of the cut safe, to rest weary players. Fewer fixtures, but more meaning in every sense for all parties. Inclusion for all serious about the sport. Opportunity and soulful meaning to the tournaments.

I like the idea of relegation and promotion of the top and bottom teams. It would be nice to see a home and away 2 game playoff series between these two nations. Winner goes to the higher division. If the sixth best European Nation is better than the seventh, they would stay top tier. Adding a seventh nation doesn’t work for me.

As a association football fan, it seems baffling to me that in rugby there's a closed six nation competition without any qualifiers. Imagine if in football England, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, maybe Portugal held their own closed tournament and everybody else had to play in their own little pond regardless of the sporting level of the other nations.

I agree There should be a relegation and promotion thing at the six nations Same with the rugby championship in the southern hemisphere Some people however appear to be close minded about this and cant see how this will grow the game .

Never given the backing they were promised. Speaks volumes. Lots of flat track bullies .

Nicely constructed . Boks in the Six Nations? Fine, just hand them the Championship and make the runner up trophy really special!

Should just have a European championship or adjust to a 8-10 team tournament can’t have any teams relegated

Just expand to 8 teams like the REC and copy their format. That would keep the original members safe from relegation for a few years and give the REC countries something to aspire to. Investment will come when they know getting into the top comp is achievable. Otherwise, bin the the 6N and RC and have proper continental and world cups with qualification, like in football. Sure, the original 6N will still be the strongest for a while, but expect the top 5 or 6 nations in the REC to catch up. Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium have excellent development systems in place. Spain is in the U20 WC and the Dutch are in the Trophy. Teams to watch.

Apologies to anyone if they have already suggested this. I think it should be a 12 nation tournament. 2 tiers of 6 teams with promotion and relegation. The 2nd tier should be subsidised by the 1st. If the six nations had worked that way since inception then France, Scotland, Italy and Wales would all have played 2nd tier rugby at some point, and I think that would have a good thing. Not for those nations of course, but for the game as a whole.

I'd prefer two or three four nations with home and away fixtures and relegation.

tbf taking the amount of time France needed to win a 5 Nations as an example for why Italy did not win anything yet is not convincing imo since that between 1910 - 1954, 2 World Wars and a ban during the 30's from the 5 Nations happened for the French team. Something that the italian team thanksfully did not faced lol. Not counting those events and only counting the 5 Nations being played during that period, it "only" took France 25 years to win their first title. Yet I think ditching the Italians in Rugby Europe would be a really bad move, it would kill the development of the sport in their country and they would be just "another Georgia" in the "Six Nations B". As for adding more european teams, I'm totally for that. Because of money though, I'm afraid Georgia, Romania, Spain and/or Portugal gets ignored for a while.

I like the idea of a 5 nations in div 1, with 5 also in div 2.

i onñly watch the rugby championship with south africa, new zealand, australia, and argentina, hopefully they expand to japan and fiji

I’d rather see the rugby championship in the south add Japan and/or Fiji. 6 seems like a good number for a tournament, they would get smacked by NZ and SA but it would at least strengthen the game

I don't think every tournament in the world has to be a made the most efficient for any particular purpose. It can just be a celebration of rugby for those teams involved. The Rugby Championship exists for the same reason, as a regional competition for the biggest sides.

Isn't there a point system that would serve as a relegation system only if a second tier nation was to rise above a first tier nation regarding those points?

I dunno if you made te point in the video, but romania seem so good BEACUSE they only play other tier 2 nations like germany and poland. If Italy was in Romania's position they wouldn't lose a single game.

Interesting idea to add a 7th, but then we are back to one club missing a week again & Georgia (most probably them) would get the same treatment Italy currently enjoy. I might add Italy also suffer from poor officiating decisions. Also, a second 'weak' team would dilute the competition too much, IMO. Just look at the WC, and the gulf in class between teams makes a lot of matches practically pointless. I favour a relegation myself but I think the status quo will prevail.

Missing the point. The 6N should become 8N with the addition of two sides from the Rugby Europe Championship. Currently these would be Georgia and Portugal. Two pools , top and bottom 2 in each pool go into semis and finals. Relegation and promotion based on two seasons aggregated. There are several Divisions in REC, so one day Kosovo or Latvia could be playing at Twickenham. Why not ?

Mate the Springboks are 4 time world champions... not 2... Enjoy thumping the other "tier 1" teams! On a positive note, The video style, format, editing is awesome! Just get the facts right from the start and i will subscribe. Will keep an eye on this channel as there is great potential.

Leave the Six Nations or incorporate it into the European Championship. What I think is the best thing that rugby Europe and world rugby can do is start and promote a European Cup. Modelled after the world cup. Once every 4 years all the best national teams in Europe play In a tournament. I think that would develop rugby in a lot of countries.

I was at Italy vs England 2024 and I’ll tell you 35k of the people their were England Fans

Italy are definately getting better, Romania were brilliant in the 80s but have gone downhill hugely. Georgia are great at home but ugly to watch away. Portugal really impressed me at the WC. Italy has the most prospects for fan growth and is easy to get to from the other nations. Flying to Georgia is much harder work and more expensive.

The 6n is full up. Italy win very few games but they are a good bit better than Georgia who are the next best team in Europe outside of the 6n but they would take an even worse hammering. Benetton and the Italy U20s are also going very well so there is hope for them. But competition is tough. SA might lobby to get in but I don’t think it would work. Geography is important in the 6n and SA I’d just too far. They are better off sticking with NZ and Aus internationally.

Seven nations would never work, then they'd want eight nations and then nine, my suggestion would be to have a 16 team competition every 12 month's and scrap the northern and southern hemisphere competition's and indeed the summer and autumn tour's, and get rid of the lion's tour as well. Some people probably won't agree with this idea but it would work, a world cup every year played over 2 month's in either the summer or autumn, all club competitions can be played with full strength teams during the other 10 month's and no club or region will be without international players .

You know that italys record is down to playing tier one nations on a regular basis, and Georgia Romania are down to playing tier 2 nations, its a poorly loaded argument

There Poor Italy Strength Cant beat the Big Guys

Make it 8 teams. Bring in Romania and Georgia. 2x groups of 4. Top 2 go into semi-finals. Easy. Bottom teams in each group do a play-off. Loser plays against winner of Europe Championships for tier 2/3 teams for promotion / relegation. Much more competitive.

There is already too much pressure on players and teams both at club and international level. The 6 Nations needs a 7th team like we need a hole in our heads. What we do need is to go back to 5 Nations as Italy couldn't win a raffle if there was only 1 prize and 1 ticket. Best scenario, keep it at 6, replace them with Georgia (who beat Italy 28-19 last time around) and give them 23 years in the 6 Nations and some investment in the Georgian game to see if they can do what Italy abjectly failed to do....become a Tier 1 nation.

Add New Zealand to the Six Nations, you cowards! On a serious note. I think relegation of the sixth place team to the lower league and promotion of that year's winner, or even having a playoff game between the two teams would be the best option. I'd also like to see a guaranteed match between the winners of the RC and Six Nations to take place each year. This game could be taken to markets where rugby is emerging as a show piece.

Forget seven nations, make it eight played to the same structure as the second tier. Time to actually give the game to the world, after over 100 years it's a disgrace that the game is still ringfenced around a handful of countries.

I’ve been saying this for sometime now; why don’t we have a Eurocup style tournament in between the World Cup? (The same way that football/soccer does it). I think it would be great for European rugby and should generate more interest.

Stay 6 nations, and invite South Africa with a promotion relegation basis with teams in Europe

Except Ireland smashed Italy today. Just saying 🤷‍♂️

Ireland was beaten AT HOME 37-29 in the '90s... Btw, if Wales or Scotland finish last does it means they are going to be relegated? Or it goes only for Italy?

long story short nothing changes til we get a new sponsor and then it is f1 or footbal all over

It started as a tournament for the four countries of the British Isles. It should have stayed that way

No 7 Nations (players already play too many games, rugby is physically much harder than basket or football...) or S.A. in the tournament, this is not a world cup, it is a European tournament, but yes, a 100% yes to a promotion/relegation. Wooden spoon goes done and best team from other tournament comes up every year, this would spice things up and allow other team to play the tournament once in a while.

TikTok lol. Why are they involved in rugby?

yeah, italy have got consistantly better. promotion/relegatio n will happen eventually but the rugby europe nations arnt good enough yet

Ireland back to back champions this year !

Number of wins isn't a great metric, it depends who you're playing. Don't see Rugby and Tik Tok fitting well. Most of their users can't count to 15.

TV viewership. Germany or Spain with huge populations are more likely to get invited as 7th team. Portugals population is too small.

6 is fine. Just have a promotion / relegation system.

Italy only has so few wins because they hardly ever play tier 2 nations. They would win 99% of games against lower ranked teams

Should be Georgia. They beat Romania every time.

A relegation/promotion will not help to evolve any rugby anywhere. France took 20 years to win their first 5N. Argentina 40 years solely to be invited on a major tournament. Italy finally is seeying the result of 20 years of investments and development (see what they did vs Scotland). Way to go more in a 7 N direction than promotion/relegation way

Japan are a tier 1 nation...

It’ll be Georgia because they’re never allowed to play the bigger sides so they just win all the time against crap sides - or it could be Romania if they’ve been playing longer etc etc...

SA should not be included in the 6 nations championship it's a northern hemisphere competition you don't see any European team trying to join the southern tri nations championship. If WR want to mix things up they could try the relegation route and allow other northern hemisphere teams to compete for a place.

The Germans are throwing a lot of money at their Rugby team - maybe a look at that next?

Add the Boks to 7 Nations, with 6 matches over the current 7 week window. To add another nail into NZ and Aus, create a Euro-Africa Championship every 4 years in the Autumn for 10 teams, played over 6 weeks. Adding Georgia, Spain and others into it, with qualifying.

England won’t win this year. Ireland best team

Go the ALL BLACKS!!!!

Id start with the ab's.. come now bro even south african rugby knows they're the goats

So why not go to 10 nations.....

Here’s an idea, leave the 6 nations alone! Its the best rugby competition by a long way, its better than the World Cup which is mainly complete dross until the semi finals (even there awful last time due to that joke of a draw).

replace italy with georgia, italy was a mistake, still 6 nations so u dont have to change the logos

SA… 2 times WRC champions????