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Why Ireland has two unofficial world titles and South Africa has none
By Ben Smith
The Nations Championship set to begin in 2026 will bring an annual world title up for grabs between the Six Nations nations, the SANZAAR nations and two further invitational teams.
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This move will bolster the in-between years of a Rugby World Cup, but there has been an irregular, unofficial world title match since the formation of the modern professional calendar in 1996.
The Six Nations champion and Rugby Championship (formerly Tri-Nations) champions have met in the November window 11 times in 21 opportunities for a would-be title match between the two hemispheres.
In the absence of a full-scale Nations Championship, formalising this one-off game would have been an ideal solution that crowns an annual champion in a supplemental way to the Rugby World Cup.
A Champions’ champion match in a sanctioned ‘final’ would have been the most-watched game of rugby every year and add meaning to the calendar.
Despite end-of-year tours in November commencing regularly from 1997, it took until the year 2000 to finally get a match between the Six Nations winner, England, and the Tri-Nations winner, Australia. England won this Test match 22-19 at Twickenham.
The two sides would met again as hemisphere champions in 2001, with England claiming another 21-15 victory to win back-to-back over the Wallabies.
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In 2002, Grand Slam champions France met Tri-Nations winners New Zealand in the November window and the two sides shared a 20-all draw.
Due to the irregular scheduling of internationals in the November window, there are many times where the two tournament winners didn’t met.
In 1998 and 2004, the Springboks did not get to play France, who were respective winners in both of those years.
More recently, the great England teams of 2016 and 2017 did not face off against the All Blacks.
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When the two sides met in 2018, England were no longer Europe’s top side. The All Blacks did face off against the Grand Slam champions that year, Ireland, and Jacob Stockdale’s famous try claimed an 18-9 win.
Four-time Rugby World Cup winners South Africa would have zero titles from the in-between years. From their three Tri-Nations wins, 1998, 2004 and 2009, they would have played in just one final.
The vaunted 2009 Springboks side who put together a 2-1 Lions series win and 3-0 sweep over the All Blacks, ending up losing at Croke Park to Ireland 15-10.
With the clock in the red and South Africa attacking in Ireland’s 22, a clutch Brian O’Driscoll tackle and counter-ruck forced a game-winning steal. O’Driscoll lay on the turf as players erupted around him. Had that been a world title match this moment would go down as iconic.
New Zealand would have six hemisphere crowns, with one shared. Their last being 2021 when they played Wales with a 54-16 win with Beauden Barrett scoring two intercept tries in his 100th match.
France would have claimed the latest title in 2022 with their 40-26 win over the All Blacks in Paris.
Overall, their would be just four nations who have won; New Zealand six times (2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2021), England (2000, 2001), Ireland (2009, 2018), France (2002, 2022) all twice.
In the modern age, there is no reason why international rugby can’t have an annual champion. The world demands as such. Back in the amateur era, long years stretched between contests.
In the 1950s and 1960s there were often four-to-five year gaps between All Blacks-Springboks Tests. We now have them every year and it’s what fans expect. A four-year of five-year absence again would be unthinkable.
The Nations Championship is the next logical step to find an annual world champion. And once it’s here you won’t be able to look back. The current system will seem archaic by comparison.
Let’s start with two world title matches in 2024 and 2025 between the two hemisphere champions as a precursor to the Nations Championship.
Every rugby fan on the planet will watch and many more casuals.
Ben Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
Yay! Click bait... the seething hate for the Springboks sells
This is a sitting duck in the “guess the author by the headline” competition
🤣🤣🤣
It’s also the perfect clickbait. RugbyPass get their ad money, I get a good laugh, and Troubled Ben gets the therapeutical value on top of the pocket change out of writing his repetitive inanities.
Everybody’s happy.
One of the best pieces of satire I have read in the last decade. Bravo Ben, your talent knows no bounds
Haha, not rising to it loser.
Ben, who came second or runner up to Ireland in those champs? England or ABs. Was France also involved?
Ben is a Kiwi columnist at RugbyPass who specialises in formulating bizarre arguments in which he aims to downplay the achievements of the South African rugby team. He lives with his cat in Auckland.
SPRINGSBOKS and IRLAND have one thing in common. Neither have lost a rugby world cup final.
The fairest measurement of the top side is when all sides have time to prepare and have all players available and fresh. The annual mid year and end of year tours are wonderful, but often exclude players and also have one side either at end of tough season or still getting into things. The Irish, to their credit, have been dominant in the past 5 years in these mid year/end of year games, but they have almost all their players close by and playing similar styles. The SH sides need to ‘ fetch’ their squad from afar often, and also from different squads, so takes time to align the players. So, the WC cycle is the fairest time to measure, as all sides then are on same page.
This is like claiming that the only reason Buck Shelford lifted Bill in 87 was because the Boks didn't play.
But if that helps them sleep at night….