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The Rugby Championship is preparing for life without South Africa. This is the reality despite today’s announcement that the Four Nations tournament has officially been signed to continue until 2025.
Writing for the Daily Mail, Chris Foy says that South Africa are going to replace Italy in the Six Nations from 2025. The change will see South Africa leaving the Rugby Championship to play in the European annual Tier 1 competition. It will come with Italy shown the door.
It is unofficial at this stage. If it is confirmed then a changed format is on the horizon for Tier 1 rugby. It will mean implications everywhere. Many questions will be asked. Perhaps the most important question is what about Italy? The answer from the Six Nations is essentially thank you and good luck moving forward. However, Italy is a stakeholder and therefore will be compensated how?
A second question is what about Six Nations promotion and relegation? The answer to that is no. This leaves Italy with nowhere to go in Europe. In other words, South Africa joining the Six Nations would mean that there simply is no Tier 1 solution for Italy.
Italy could do a number of things such as play in an annual Tri Nations between Georgia and the European Champion from an annual competition involving Portugal, Romania, Russia, and Spain. Italy could return to a resurrected Latin Cup with Argentina, Romania and France. Uruguay, Chile, Portugal and Spain are certainly worthy of being in the conversation. It would not be annual though; rather, it could be once every four years during the Lions tour.
A third question is what about the Rugby Championship? The answer is that the tournament will lose the Springboks and the participants will need to prepare for life without South Africa. Steps have been taken for Japan to potentially join the competition and Fiji has also been linked. In short, South Africa’s exit would see others joining.
A fourth question is what about the Springboks and Los Pumas? Argentina’s link with South Africa would be severely harmed. While there is little in the way of coverage on this theme, the reality is that the relationship already has been hit by a hurricane with South Africa leaving Super Rugby for the United Rugby Championship.
If South Africa do leave the Rugby Championship then Argentina is expected to invest further in the Americas. This would come in the form of the Sùper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) growing further and for increased regional international competition. The Americas Rugby Championship and Americas Rugby Challenge are expected back long before 2025.
Finally, how will Australia and New Zealand compensate for the loss? The answer, may already be known. The push from most Six Nations and Rugby Championship unions is an old idea not a new one; it is the Nations Championship. The push for this competition is back and may thus see fixtures such as South Africa vs New Zealand moved to the player release windows in July or November.
