Six Nations and Sanzaar dig in against World Rugby over relegation

Six Nations and Sanzaar are headed for another scrap with World Rugby, this time over whether the founding unions can dodge relegation from the new Nations Championship. Concerns are swirling across the sport that some of the ten unions behind the breakaway company F10 — Wales and Italy in particular — want guard rails protecting them from dropping into the second-tier Nations Cup, which is run by World Rugby.

A second flashpoint is brewing over money. The smaller unions, with World Rugby's backing, want the Nations Cup's commercial rights bundled up and sold alongside those of the Nations Championship, which would hand them a slice of the proceeds.

The gap in sales is already stark. The Nations Championship has locked in more than 80 broadcast deals for this year's tournament, all brokered before F10 existed, while the Nations Cup has just 13, with games streamed on the World Rugby-owned RugbyPass TV in many markets including the UK. Japan and Fiji have been handed invitational status for the first three editions through 2030, when the licence granted by World Rugby requires promotion and relegation to begin.

The Nations Championship squeaked through a World Rugby Council vote in Paris before the 2023 World Cup final, on the condition it become an open league from 2030 with every side able to be relegated and one promotion spot on offer. Sources present told the Guardian that ringfencing the ten founders would have to go back to the council, as it would rewrite the terms agreed three years ago and damage the competition's integrity. The original motion needed a 75% majority and cleared it with 41 votes for and 10 against — a margin of 80% that makes reopening the debate a gamble.

This fight has deep roots. World Rugby first floated the Nations Championship almost a decade ago, only for the unions to sink it by refusing to accept relegation. The governing body also originally proposed selling commercial rights jointly — something the ten biggest unions have now gone ahead and arranged for themselves.

The Six Nations' official line is that relegation arrives in 2030 as planned, though it concedes the exact mechanism is still undetermined. Six Nations sources insist the size of the parachute payment for the relegated union is the main loose end, while individual unions lobby for exemptions. Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Abi Tierney recently called relegation for Wales 'cataclysmic'. RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney said a World Rugby review group chaired by Brett Robinson is working on how it would function: 'The basic premise is still the same, how that comes into effect needs to be sorted out.' Italy and Fiji sit bottom after four rounds of the inaugural Nations Championship, with Georgia and USA leading the tier below.