London (AFP)
World Rugby President Bill Beaumont said he believed, due to the economic difficulties linked to the coronavirus, to the resurgence of a project close to the championship of the nations, an idea abandoned in 2019 by the governing body of world rugby in the face of numerous oppositions. .
"I am quite confident that there will be a variant of the Nations Cup," Beaumont said on BBC Radio on Saturday.
This competition project, led by his Argentine vice-president Agustin Pichot - and now an opponent in the election of the presidency of World Rugby next week -, was to bring together the best teams from each hemisphere three years out of four, it that is to say all the years without the World Cup.
He had finally been put in a drawer in front of the reluctance of the nations of the North but the coronavirus and its financial consequences for rugby changed the situation, estimates Beaumont.
"I think there is a real spirit of collaboration between the North and the South to look at what we can do with our gaming windows and our international windows to generate more income with a new competition," said Beaumont. .
"There is a game of balance to be found so that everything fits into this puzzle," said the former XV captain of England, now 68 years old.
The Nations Championship aimed to revive interest, international summer and autumn windows (tours) by integrating them, like the Six Nations Tournament and the Rugby Championship into an annual competition. With the hope of substantial additional income.
But he had raised strong criticism from the International Players Union (IRP) and the English and French Leagues. Players from the Pacific Islands (Fiji, Samoa, Tonga) also castigated the project.
"I think in the past, people were mostly concerned with protecting what they had, and now what we are seeing is probably a return to reality in rugby - are we doing it right? "asks Beaumont.
"It would be stupid not to learn from these lessons," said the president of World Rugby announcing, whatever the outcome of the election, a big bang on the international calendar in the coming months.
© 2020 AFP