Proposed club world cup

Not all evolution is progress, some evolutionary branches are dead-ends. I'd happily argue over a pint that the old European format was better than the dogs-dinner they spunked out as the Champions Cup.

I'm not necessary against this comp but I don't see much merit to it either. it's weirdly weighted too, imo, with 3 leagues getting 8 spots 1 league getting 7 spots.

If we want to rip up the calendar to the promote the game, how about we curtail the Champions Cup one season in four to play a European Championship in October/November with sides like Georgia, Romania, Spain etc in the cycle that alternates with the RWC. That way there'd be no disruption to the 6 nations and we'd be giving meaningful European competition to non-6 Nations sides.

I know it wouldn't and because the game has been sold to a handful of men in the UK and France any amount of bad ideas will be promoted by them.

But if we wanted to truly grow the game, a European Championship on a 4 year cycle would be better than a closed shop of 16 elite clubs.

I don't follow u20's closely but i get the impression Italy are now doing better than both Wales and Scotland at u20's? At some point that will feed into their senior side. Incidentally to this topic, Georgia are apparently trying to get a club side into the URC, no idea how it would work but I'd rather see that then the elite clubs siloed off in an exclusive club comp.

We are 30 years into pro rugby and if anything, the game might be in worse health in Wales and Scotland than it has been for years.

If nothing else, they'd present the returns from another home game and subsequent tv revenue etc but it really depends on what world rugby or the Georgian Union can bring to it. Afaik, there's talks on-going between the parties atm.

Conversely, with Wales threatening to cut one or even two teams, we might actually need to find extra teams from somewhere, an extra Italian side or an extra SA side are more obvious choices than a Georgian side but who knows how the Unions will see it. For example, SA have a history in Super rugby of being hard to deal with, do the unions up here really want to be dependent on them etc. It would be a lot cheaper to finance a team in Georgia than it would be for World rugby to finance a Welsh side.

If Wales do cut 2 teams, i can easily see a spot being found for Georgia, especially if world rugby underwrite them.

Absolutely agree, the Portuguese club side was pretty impressive in the inaugural Super Cup, ran the eventually winners (a Georgian side, incidentally) close in the final. Spanish rugby is in disarray atm over the RWC banning but yeah, I'd have no issue with a URC conference including those sides with some crossover to our 'A' sides or something.

if Munster A were playing a Georgian/Portuguese or Spanish side I'd definitely check it out, albeit I know i'm in the minority on it.

It strikes me as unrealistic because the professional game is dying on its feet in Wales and Scotland, they'll never risk their sides going down to a league where the standard is poorer.

A side conference is probably more workable but a team like Leinster would put 100 (probably 100+) points on any club from the Rugby Super Cup, arguably it might be dangerous for them to play each other.

Georgian sides already play with Russian sides in the Rugby Super Cup. No real idea how these sides sit in respect of the internal leagues of either country, (I assume they are composite sides but no idea really).

I think one Georgian side, made up of old pros and young prospects, probably could be "competitive at home" in the URC. it'll be interesting to see if anything comes of the talks.

I'm not certain but aren't the Georgian clubs etc locked out of the world club cup competition?

It's just another attempt by the elites of the game to keep things for themselves. I don't think the clubs from either the Georgian domestic league or the Rugby Super Cup could be competitive in any such competition but we'll never get to see either way.