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After the Springboks' declaration of loyalty, fans now want Rugby Championship expansion

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

The future of the Rugby Championship looks a lot safer on Wednesday after South Africa recommitted to the competition until 2030, but this renewed loyalty has been seen by some fans as an opportunity for expansion and the inclusion of the likes of Japan and Fiji.

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Having withdrawn from this season’s Australia-based competition due to concerns surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, fears rose that that could spell an end to the four-team competition, with the Springboks favouring a potentially seismic move to the northern hemisphere and the Six Nations.

Those fears have obviously been allayed and after the news was announced by SANZAAR, there have now called for the Rugby Championship tournament to welcome new additions – with Japan and Fiji being the most discussed.

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Given that Japan (ninth) are actually ranked higher than Argentina (tenth) in the world rankings, and Fiji (eleventh) are only one below, there is a valid case for giving them a chance to compete amongst rugby’s elite. Tonga and Samoa also feature in the top 15.

Both Japan and Fiji were expected to play in the upcoming Autumn Nations Cup in the northern hemisphere, but the Japanese were forced to pull out and were subsequently replaced by Georgia.

There are obvious complications that come with expanding the Rugby Championship, not least geographical issues, but the idea of expanding the competition is not new, and South Africa’s decision to renew their commitment has only rekindled that discussion online.

https://twitter.com/paulcullystuff/status/1323842706955620354?s=20

The Tri-Nations got underway last Saturday without the world champions, with the All Blacks securing an emphatic 43-5 victory over Australia. In what has been a difficult year, SANZAAR boss Andy Marinos has hinted at the promising announcements to come.

He said: “This is the first of a number of announcements that will be made over the coming weeks and months as we continue to plan into 2021 and beyond.

“The disruption during 2020 has been significant, however, despite the numerous setbacks and the inherent complexity of our vast geographical expanse, we have managed to keep the game alive and look forward to the remainder of the revised Tri-Nations to bring the curtain down on the 2020 season.”

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J
JW 7 hours ago
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Have to imagine it was a one off sorta thing were they were there (saying playing against the best private schools) because that is the level they could play at. I think I got carried away and misintrepted what you were saying, or maybe it was just that I thought it was something that should be brought in.


Of course now school is seen as so much more important, and sports as much more important to schooling, that those rural/public gets get these scholarships/free entry to play at private schools.


This might only be relevant in the tradition private rugby schools, so not worth implementing, but the same drain has been seen in NZ to the point where the public schools are not just impacted by the lost of their best talent to private schools, there is a whole flow on effect of losing players to other sports their school can' still compete at the highest levels in, and staff quality etc. So now and of that traditional sort of rivalry is near lost as I understand it.


The idea to force the top level competition into having equal public school participation would be someway to 'force' that neglect into reverse. The problem with such a simple idea is of course that if good rugby talent decides to stay put in order to get easier exposure, they suffer academically on principle. I wonder if a kid who say got selected for a school rep 1st/2nd team before being scouted by a private school, or even just say had two or three years there, could choose to rep their old school for some of their rugby still?


Like say a new Cup style comp throughout the season, kid's playing for the private school in their own local/private school grade comp or whatever, but when its Cup games they switch back? Better represent, areas, get more 2nd players switching back for top level 1st comp at their old school etc? Just even in order to have cool stories where Ella or Barrett brothers all switch back to show their old school is actually the best of the best?

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