“World Rugby lets us down, it’s time to make our voices heard,” the PRPW said in a statement, stating that its “600 members, made up mostly of professional rugby players who play on European teams, are currently discussing a motion to declare itself unavailable for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. This call for a boycott constitutes “a legitimate protest of the players” against the project of a World League “that will exclude the Pacific countries for twelve seasons,” the statement added.The new event, which was promoted by the Argentinean Agustín PIchot, vice president of World Rugby, would take place during the June and November windows, replacing the test-matches that take place in those two months.According to the New Zealand Herald published, the new competition, which World Rugby hopes to launch in 2020, will bring together 12 national teams: those participating in the Six Nations Tournament (England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, France, Italy) and the four of the Rugby Championship (New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Argentina), to which Japan and the United States would be added. And at the same time it was leaked that World Rugby plans to make an exclusive championship, without the possibility of changing countries and with a closed contract of 12 years. That is, emerging countries (in addition to those who protest could join Brazil, Uruguay, Georgia and Russia, among others), could compete with Tier 1 (the powerful) only during the World Cups, at least until 2031. So things , the smaller islands of the Pacific (Fiji, Samoa and Tonga), with weight in this sport but whose economies do not finish helping the progress of their teams, would be the big losers.The International Rugby Players Association had lamented the absence of a system of promotions and descents, something that in his opinion “prevents” emerging countries from “accessing high-level matches”, especially in the case of those from Oceania. Pichot published in his Twitter account that he always defended a system of promotions and descents; However, as he was always in charge of the project, he was one of the most questioned people after the information was leaked.
What would the system be like? In principle, the usual Six Nationals and Rugby Championship matches would be valid for those same events and for the World League. If there were promotions and descents, the European tournament and that of the southern hemisphere could continue but for the fixture of the League to be completed, more meetings would be necessary, and the international calendar does not have enough dates for that. It would be necessary, for example, that the same selected one played in five consecutive weekends, when the maximum allowed is three.
If it is a closed competition on both levels (Tier 1 on one side and Tier 2 on the other, without ever exchanging teams), the strong and weak teams would not cross without the World Cup, something that happens only every four years .
Pichot, who is both an adviser to the rugby union of the United States and vice president of World Rugby, argues that supports the emerging and that the issue is not closed, but the presence of the CVC company, led by the exzar of the Formula 1 Bernie Ecclestone, would secure a lot of money for each Tier 1 union.
