The attempt by World Rugby to set up an international league makes Brexit resemble a 50-piece jigsaw puzzle by comparison. Players have weighed in, saying the plan would add to their burden while Pacific islanders have threatened to boycott this year’s World Cup in protest at a (false) report that none of their three countries would be involved.
The idea of using the summer and autumn Test windows to align the Six Nations and the Rugby Championship was spawned by World Rugby’s vice-chairman, Agustín Pichot, the former Argentina scrum-half, who recognised that the current tour schedule left the major southern hemisphere nations financially disadvantaged.
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