Rugby in danger of selling its soul with plans for world league

Is the dam on the brink of bursting? Is international rugby ready to sell its soul? The haste with which a proposed new 12-team World League is being introduced smacks of panic. There is even talk of the tournament running in 2020. Surely not?

If that does prove to be the case, then just three months after rugby’s newly crowned world champions have been crowned in Tokyo in November, the Six Nations championship will double up as the first leg of the new global tournament in a move that will only serve to dilute the importance of the World Cup itself in the long term.