The 6n is the cash cow that keeps paying. Relegation is unthinkable. Italy for Georgia? It’s just too far. The Nations cup we are in theory playing now could offer some hope, but looks yet another closed shop really.
The tier2 world trophy in Lions years is my solution. This is also then the world cup qualifiers
Yeah, obviously covid has played a big part, but a stat I saw recently of the Beaumont years is that world rugby dropped from 95ish countries to 47. And apparently a lot of countries are really just 7s only for the Olympics.
Similar story to Cricket I think - too much greed from the biggest countries, too much protectionism from the ones on the cusp and very little real growth in participation in the minnows.
There are some bright sparks - Portugal, Chile etc, but each of those is accompanied by a Canada or USA decline.
The 6n is the cash cow that keeps paying. Relegation is unthinkable. Italy for Georgia? It’s just too far. The Nations cup we are in theory playing now could offer some hope, but looks yet another closed shop really.
The tier2 world trophy in Lions years is my solution. This is also then the world cup qualifiers
Yeah, obviously covid has played a big part, but a stat I saw recently of the Beaumont years is that world rugby dropped from 95ish countries to 47. And apparently a lot of countries are really just 7s only for the Olympics.
Similar story to Cricket I think - too much greed from the biggest countries, too much protectionism from the ones on the cusp and very little real growth in participation in the minnows.
There are some bright sparks - Portugal, Chile etc, but each of those is accompanied by a Canada or USA decline.