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EPCR chief McKay delivers his latest Club Rugby World Cup update

By PA
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

European rugby chiefs have admitted that attempts to set up a Club Rugby World Cup remain ongoing with no deadline set for the concept to get off the ground. The competition that would pit the best domestic sides from the northern and southern hemispheres against each other every four years received public backing from unions and leagues during the summer yet is no closer to fruition.

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European Professional Club Rugby chairman Dominic McKay is optimistic it will happen despite the many hurdles faced in establishing a global tournament. “It has been a topic of conversation for some considerable time. We’re making some good progress,” McKay said.

“We are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to evaluate it as a proposition. It needs to be additive to what we currently enjoy and be complementary to the existing structures. Everyone is leaning in to find the right outcome, but we will do that in a measured and sensible way. It’s certainly possible and we are chopping through the detail methodically right now.

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“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and we have got a bit of work to get through. Rugby is littered with great ideas that never come to fruition but I’m optimistic that we are making good progress.

“We won’t be definitive on a timeline because that creates undue expectation, but we have to keep working away like we did on the South African sides working their way into Europe. That was a really important project for us over the last nine months and we are delighted that has come to fruition. The next project is the concept of a world club challenge.”

Related

South African sides are taking part in the Champions and Challenge Cup for the first time this season but McKay revealed there are checks in place to review their participation. It is understood that the French league is unconvinced by the presence of the Sharks, Stormers, Bulls, Lions and Cheetahs in European competition with the logistics and safety surrounding away fixtures the primary concern.

McKay stated that finals would continue to be staged only in established rugby nations, ruling out a destination final such as Barcelona, but is open to one being held in South Africa at some point in the future.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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