Australia "formally agreed" to support World Rugby’s "radical plan" to create a new global 12-team league that will "forever change" the sport’s int'l sporting landscape and deliver "massive financial bonuses to the cash-starved game," according to Julian Linden of the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH. The final decision on whether the new league will go ahead, and "exactly how it will function, still has to be agreed on but is getting ever closer to reality" after Rugby Australia voted to back the proposal at a board meeting in Sydney on Monday. Described as "the biggest development in rugby" since the game turned professional after the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the top six teams from the northern and southern hemispheres will play each other once a year, with the top four going into a playoff to decide an annual champion. It would spell the end of three-match series, except the once-every-four-years British & Irish Lions tours. It would also result in every int'l match "counting for something," with Japan and Fiji joining an expanded Rugby Championship and three Six Nations teams visiting Australia each year. The Wallabies would play the rest on their annual Spring Tour to the northern hemisphere. Some European countries "are still hesitant about some aspects of the competition, particularly the proposal to include promotion and relegation," but with Australia formally backing the move, other southern hemisphere countries "are expected to follow suit" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 2/18).
