2023-10-24 14:36:22
The men’s Rugby World Cup will increase from 20 to 24 nations for its next edition in Australia in 2027, World Rugby announced on Tuesday.
Published on: 10/24/2023 – 2:36 p.m. Modified on: 10/24/2023 – 2:49 p.m.
2 mn
Four more teams for the Rugby World Cup. For the 2027 edition in Australia, the tournament will increase from 20 to 24 participants, the governing body World Rugby announced on Tuesday October 24 in a press release.
At the same time, World Rugby announced the creation of a new competition bringing together from 2026 the ten best nations in the world and two invited nations, which will be organized in July and November in place of the current tours.
At the next World Cup, in 2027 in Australia, the twenty-four nations will be divided into six groups of four with round of 16 matches.
The competition will be reduced to six weeks, “while promoting a rhythm which gives momentum to the group stage and respecting the same minimum number of rest days (five, Editor’s note) between matches” as during the World Cup in France, explained the world rugby body.
Negotiated on the sidelines of the World Cup in France
The new competition will bring together the six nations of the Tournament (France, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, Italy) as well as the four of the Rugby Championship (New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Argentina) and therefore two invited nations.
A promotion-relegation system will be put in place, from 2030, with a second division, also made up of twelve teams.
The meetings, six per country, will take place during the windows of July in the Southern Hemisphere and November in the Northern Hemisphere and would lead to a final at the end of November.
This competition had been in the works for a while and was validated on Tuesday by the World Rugby council after long weeks of negotiations on the sidelines of the World Cup in France, which ends on Saturday with a clash between the South Africans who hold the title and the All Blacks.
With AFP
#mens #Rugby #World #Cup #expand #nations