Rugby Club World Cup: Concerns voiced over scheduling, enthusiasm for north v south ties

The first tournament has been slated to take place in a four-week block in June 2028 and would involve 16 teams. The top eight from Europe would take on six from Super Rugby and two from Japan in a knockout round of 16, followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final. The competition would be held every four years, with the first one in the northern hemisphere. Organisers are open to taking it to the southern hemisphere in 2032.

“It would be great to be involved in something like that,” said Sean Everitt, the Edinburgh head coach. “I’d just like to know how they’re going to fit it into the rugby calendar. We’re always keen to play at the highest level but it will be interesting to see how they’re going to fit it in. Something would have to give somewhere because there are just not enough days in the year.”

Organisers are confident that the European leagues will agree to bring forward their finals in 2028 to accommodate the Club World Cup but it would likely mean starting the season earlier. This season, for example, the play-offs for the United Rugby Championship, the league in which Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors play, are not scheduled to begin until June, with the final taking place on June 22. The English Premiership final is on June 8 and the French Top 14 final will be played on June 28.

European qualification for the Club World Cup would come via the Investec Champions Cup which would run as normal until the quarter-finals at which point the eight clubs would be diverted into the new competition and drawn against the top six Super Rugby sides and two from Japan. There will be no Champions Cup winner that year and the sides who don't make the cut for the Club World Cup will play in an expanded Challenge Cup.

Sam Skinner, the Edinburgh and Scotland forward who won the Champions Cup with Exeter Chiefs in 2020, said the new competition would appeal to him. “It sounds cool, with some of the best [southern hemisphere] sides, Crusaders, Chiefs, Brumbies, playing the top sides in Europe,” said Skinner. “How would the likes of Leinster get on against the Crusaders? They are typically the two that have been consistently at the top for the last 10 years. It would be interesting but it’s above my pay grade. But if you’re asking me if I would enjoy going down to the southern hemisphere and playing some rugby for Edinburgh in these top games, then yeah, it would be a good laugh.”