Pope praying for a club world cup

Brent Pope has called for a rugby world cup club tournament which would see the top teams in Europe compete against the top teams in the Super 15.

Right now, the highest honour Munster and Leinster can achieve is to be crowned Heineken Cup champions. But as a keen enthusiast of both northern and southern hemisphere rugby, the popular RTÉ pundit from New Zealand believes that every four years, such teams should go up against the best club sides in the Super 15 for the right to be called world champions.

“I’d love to see a club world cup. I think it could happen. Have a tournament every four years where you’d take the top four club teams in the southern hemisphere based on ranking points they’d have accumulated over those four years, and then take the four most consistent teams in Europe based on the same criteria,” says Pope, who is the subject of tomorrow’s Irish Examiner Big Interview.