Rugby: World Cup to comprise 24 teams amid radical new calendar

Rugbyhailed the expansion of theWorldCupand the introduction of a Nations League competition as anewdawn for the sport as it sought to widen its international reach and increase revenue and opportunity. WorldRugby(WR) announced on Tuesday it had made severalradicalchanges to the sport’scalendarthat it hoped would take the game into annewera and which it said was the final step in a long-term review of the game and its future.

The changes includes an expanded24-team men'sWorldCup, a two-tier Nations League competition which would eventually offer lower-ranked sides more opportunity to play against top opposition and anewaligned internationalcalendar.“Ifrugbyis going to become a truly global sport, we simply have to make it more relevant, more accessible to more people around theworld,” WR chairman Sir Bill Beaumont told a press conference in Paris.

"It's fitting that we finish this, the sport’s greatest celebration of togetherness, with the sport’s greatest feat of togetherness, the most significant development in the sport since the game went professional.

Promised changes torugby’s traditional order have been debated for more than a decade but have routinely met with opposition from the sport’s superpowers and Beaumont admitted thenewplans had dissenters. “But on the whole there was a pretty significant vote in favour of the two competitions,” he told reporters.

The 2027WorldCupin Australia will expand from the current 20 to24teams, split into six first-round groups containing four sides each. There will be a round of 16 added and, despite more competing sides, the tournament will be shortened from seven weeks to six.

LATER DRAW

WR said the draw for the nextWorldCupwould be made in January 2026, the latest it has ever been held before a tournament. It follows criticism that the draw for theWorldCupin France, based on rankings from the 2019 tournament partly due to COVID, was made too early and led to lopsided competition with one side of the draw packed with top-rankedteams.

One of the long-running issues atWorldCups has been unhappiness from Tier Two nations about a lack of regular, competitive matches, with complaints about being excluded from a ‘closed shop’.

WR said they had addressed this by the introduction of a Nations League competition, with two 12-team divisions. It would start in 2026 and, although its format was not revealed, would see a top division comprising sides from the Six Nations andRugbyChampionship, and reportedly Japan and Fiji, meeting every two years in the July and November international windows.

There will be a second division with a further 12teams, which will be run byWorldRugby. There will be promotion and relegation between the two divisions, but only from 2030.WR promised that in the years when the Nations League was not played there would be "a significant uplift in the number of cross-over matches between unions in the respective divisions".

There will also be anew, annual expanded Pacific NationsCupcompetition in 2024featuring Canada, Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Tonga and the United States.

“We now look forward to an excitingnewera for our sport commencing in 2026," Beaumont said. "An era that will bring certainty and opportunity for all. An era that will support the many, not the few, and an era that will supercharge the development of the sport beyond its traditional and often self-imposed boundaries."

There will also be a first dedicated international release window in the women’s game from 2026, with a review of the globalcalendarand competition structures promised in the future.

WR also said there would be a "commitment to more effectively manage player load and welfare in the fast-evolving women’s game".

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