Enjoy it while it lasts. The current edition of the Rugby Championship has been captivating, the most open in living memory and with two rounds remaining all four nations are firmly in contention for the title. Last weekend witnessed another thriller between Australia and Argentina – the Pumas edging home 28-26 – while the Springboks produced their most dominant display since the 2023 World Cup with a record victory against the All Blacks.
There had been suggestions that South Africa were beginning to decline after a plateau since their triumph in Paris but Saturday’s performance was some riposte. Australia were agonisingly close to another successful comeback at the soldout Allianz Stadium, meanwhile, and there remains a good deal of optimism around the Wallabies. Not least because they sit top of the table and believe they can get their hands back on the Bledisloe Cup in the coming weeks after New Zealand won it back in 2003 and never let it go.
Enjoy it, because the Rugby Championship is set for a hiatus next year and there remains uncertainty as to what will happen thereafter. In 2026, following the first tranche of the inaugural Nations Cup matches, New Zealand are set to tour South Africa in what is being billed as the Greatest Rivalry. Three Tests are expected – with a money-spinning fourth mooted for a neutral venue, possibly Twickenham – and a handful of tour matches involving club sides. The Greatest Rivalry has not been formally announced yet and though there is still scope for fixtures including all four nations, the Rugby Championship as we know it will be put on hold soon enough. In 2027, with Australia hosting the World Cup in October and November, it will be truncated and there are conflicting reports as to what may happen in 2028 and 2029 before South Africa likely embark on a bumper tour of New Zealand in 2030.
The timing is terrible, given how engrossing this year’s competition has been with all four sides on the same win-loss record. Australia’s resurgence, Argentina’s continued progression, New Zealand’s inconsistency and South Africa’s willingness to experiment in an effort to stay ahead of the game has made for an intoxicating mix. Viewed through that short-term prism, the decision by South Africa and New Zealand to go it alone looks foolish. Another example of rugby administrators shooting themselves in the foot.
It appears a selfish decision, two unions seeking to cash in on the fact that they are the two biggest brands in the competition. It is also borne out by South Africa’s decision to take their club sides out of Super Rugby and into the United Rugby Championship. That has had a detrimental impact on New Zealand in particular given their players – who must remain at home if they want to represent their country – are not tested as they once were. The same goes for Australia, though theirs have tended to come up short against their New Zealand counterparts in recent years anyway.
Zoom out a little further, however, and the Greatest Rivalry makes a degree of sense. New Zealand edged past the Springboks in Auckland before South Africa so ruthlessly exacted revenge in Wellington and who would not want to see a decider this weekend? It can also be said that while this year’s Rugby Championship has been compelling, some recent editions have been less so. It can seem unwieldy, the travel and differing time zones do not help and perhaps administrators should be applauded for innovation.
A recent report called “Reinventing Rugby”, commissioned by R360 to demonstrate the opportunity for growth in the club game, laid bare the dominance of the international sphere within the sport, yet still painted a fairly bleak financial picture for unions across the world. The Rugby Football Union and its Irish counterpart have bemoaned the fact that World Cup years are loss-making and if there is demand for the Greatest Rivalry then it is hard to begrudge New Zealand and South Africa looking to capitalise. Next year’s fourth Test could well be staged in the US – both unions have played Tests there in recent years – and it is World Rugby’s stated aim to grow the game in North America. Why shouldn’t New Zealand and the Springboks take it upon themselves to do so?
The emergence of R360 is significant, too, because it is said that there has been considerable interest in players from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Again, if there is such potential disruption to those nations’ domestic sides in the pipeline, why wouldn’t they each explore ways to maximise avenues available to their Test sides, even if it appears Australia has been somewhat left out?
Such a state of flux makes for fascinating watching from the UK, where Wales is, frankly speaking, in a mess and the English game rebranding itself as it comes out of a period of turbulence. Prem Rugby is seeking to flex its muscles this season, directors of rugby have been urged to celebrate the game’s physicality, its intensity in what can be best described as a glow-up for England’s top tier.
Red Bull’s investment in Newcastle is a huge feather in the cap and gives league organisers confidence that the threat posed by R360 can be faced down. Plans are afoot for a franchise league and there is a priority, both among Prem Rugby and RFU officials to appeal to a younger generation of fans. A Lions tour that left you wondering what might have been is said to, anecdotally at least, largely have passed the younger generation by and that will concentrate minds further.
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But a word of warning. For it was instructive listening to Gloucester’s director of rugby, George Skivington, at the launch last week of the Prem season. “I’ve got a little bit of a view that we’ve got a great game, great people in the game and the product is good, we should always be ambitious to grow the game but I think people want us to be something we’re not sometimes,” he said.
“We could talk a little bit more about how good the game is, what it is and maybe this is what it is. Rugby is rugby and we should celebrate it rather than, ‘it’s not good enough, we should be doing this’. Some people forget it’s good in my opinion. We could celebrate a little bit more rather than talk about how good everything else is and I’m pretty sure if you got into other leagues and organisations they’d be saying it’s not as rosy as everyone thinks. If our level of crowd is 15,000 supporters through the season, OK, let’s have 15,000 really good supporters who love the game and that is what it is.”
Skivington was not addressing the international game, let alone the Rugby Championship but it is a view that all administrators should pay heed to. The argument for celebrating and maximising what we have should not be ignored when endlessly chasing rainbows.
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