Former United States rugby head coach Gary Gold has blasted World Rugby for ignoring smaller nations with its new radical competition. A new international two-tier league has been drawn up with 12 teams competing in each division.
Likened to football’s Nations League, the top division will feature all Six Nations teams as well as South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Fiji and Japan with a biennial final. But any other rugby-playing nation will have to wait until 2030 to be able to gain promotion to the top division.
The so-called Tier Two nations, such as Portugal, Uruguay, United States and Georgia will therefore be highly unlikely to face off against the elite sides outside of a World Cup. Gold, who held the head coach position of the United States national team from 2018 to 2022, has not been impressed by World Rugby’s decision to delay promotion and relegation in the two-tier competition.
“It is utterly and totally ridiculous. It is not progressive at all,” Gold told City A.M. “When the accusations come towards the powers that be of them being an old boys’ club trying to look after themselves, it is difficult not to believe that is the case.
“It seems like the boys’ club is looking after the boys. I cannot see another explanation to this. It is just nonsense. “There are teams like Romania, the United States, Canada, Spain and Uruguay who have big ambitions and want to grow. And they’re not going to grow, this is the bottom line.
“Playing Fiji, Tonga and Canada [for Tier Two] nations is all fair and well, you will get better, but you’re not putting yourself in a position to significantly improve. “It is scandalous. I read something where Nick Easter [former England No8] said rugby was one of the worst-run sports in the world and I am struggling to disagree with him.”
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World Rugby have also announced a shake-up to the Pacific Nations Cup, which will feature the USA, Tonga, Samoa, Japan, Fiji and Canada. The changes will take effect from next year and will be played in August and September
There will be two pools of three – a North America/Japan pool and a Pacific Islands pool. A finals series will then take place each year with Japan and USA hosting in alternate years, starting with the former in 2024.
World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said: “We have seen at this Rugby World Cup just how the performance nations need certainty of regular access to top-level competition to be able to build, grow and deliver on the world stage. This Pacific Nations Cup competition helps address that need as we look to reshape the global calendar to deliver greater opportunity, certainty and equity. By 2026, these teams will have unprecedented high-level competition access.”
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