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Steve Hanson Wants Northern Vs Southern Hemisphere Showdowns In Rugby Shakeup

Steve Hanson Wants Northern Vs Southern Hemisphere Showdowns In Rugby Shakeup

Great idea Steve.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

As world rugby heads towards a much better calendar coach of the All Blacks Steve Hanson wants to see room for some big northern versus southern hemisphere showdowns to take rugby "through the roof."

Fears continue to grow around player health and safety because of the ridiculous amount of rugby being played. Come the end of next summer some players would have played three club seasons with the intensity of a World Cup, summer tour and Lions tour in the last three years and of course the usual mix of Six Nations and Rugby Championships. It's just too much.

To that end World Rugby are trying to negotiate a world calendar to come in to place after the 2019 World Cup meaning that competitions in the north and south hemisphere will run side by side. Despite the Six Nations refusing to move from its February-March slot All Blacks' coach Steve Hansen wants to see the winner of that competition take on the Rugby Championships winner. Talking to Sportsmail he said:

"It's a no-brainer. You've got to say, "What's best for our product so we can keep attracting people to come and watch it?

"First, our players need a decent pre-season. You'd play club competitions simultaneously. We could have the European Cup winners play the Super Rugby winners and the Six Nations winners play the Rugby Championship winners. We need some goodwill to sort it out."


The prospect of a club world championships style scenario with the winner of the southern hemisphere's Super Rugby taking on the winner of northern hemisphere's European Champions Cup is a really interesting one. The winner of the Six Nations versus the winner of the Rugby Championships is possibly less intriguing but would certainly still bring a big audience.

Under the changes to the world calendar summer tours will be scrapped in World Cup years but the Lions tour is set to be kept safe.

The Lions head to New Zealand next summer and Hansen is looking forward to taking them on saying, "We'll want to win 3-0. If the northern nations keep playing well they'll provide a headache for the selectors."

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