Six Nations B

Looks like it's on the way.

See and read this entire thread for more details. Particular interest should be taken to page 4, with relation to FRR Head Cristian Matei who basically reveals that Six Nations B will be happening. Sadly no official word will put dampen on the claims for now.

Here are the posts in question:

http://www.fira-aer-rugby.com/forum2007/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4481&start=45

The secretary-general of the FRR, Florin Matei, has confirmed that there are official talks currently going on about a new Tier 2 competition from 2016 (after the RWC). On a radio show yesterday, he said that the new competition would include USA, Canada, Romania, Georgia and Russia (I guess one more team as well).

As far as I know, this is the first official source to announce there are real chances for this new competition, which proves to be more than just forum talk. This is an amazing news for Tier 2 rugby.

Well, Russia is still the 3rd strongest team in the ENC, despite their failures.

According to Matei, the federations have already agreed on the new tournament at a meeting in London, but the IRB has asked them not to make things public yet. He refused to give more details, except that Romania will no longer play in the ENC (so I guess that the new tournament will be played in the 6N window).

The info was revealed thanks to the host of the radio show Cristi Frisk (who asked the official a very precise question on this topic) and to Florin Matei (who chose to give him a honest answer).

The first developments to increase the pool of national teams at a competent level then. No promotion/relegation. yet.

From what I know, and have heard in various podcasts, the 6th team is rumoured to be Belgium.

Imagine the outcome will be a bit of a mix. Partly it's terrific news, though it still needs an actual spot to open in the Six Nations A by whatever mechanism. The downside is players from those countries will likely hold less appeal to pro clubs in Europe, even with that I'd note it as a positive step.

I don't see how Belgium will be included. I saw them playing two times vs Oaks and they're awful, it's not exactly rugby what they are doing.

Another issue I have is with Russian federation which is doing crap lately by playing ENC games in villages near nowhere or in Sochi were is not any attendance except families and friends of the players.

They sometimes want to schedule games in Siberia where is very difficult to go...

But I would like to see Uruguay in, much better team IMHO than Russia. Or keep it with 5 teams and give some time to tier 2 players to play for their clubs and promote first team from an ENC with Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Moldova, Germany and Poland. (last three being best teams from ENC2 atm).

Is the IRB going to assist with travel costs? Running camps, hotels, plane travel for the US and Canada isn't cheap Adding in Uruguay even whilst they're a good team makes that still pricier.

Things I am aware of.

Melville said USA and Canada will play in either England or Wales.

Russia have made several enquiries to play at Saracens Allianz Arena, with a large preference to the aesthetics of the pitch itself.

Belgium are seen as a federation and team on the rise. Hence the attention they are getting and most podcasts I've heard seem to have them having a genuine say it seems.

Uruguay will stay in SA. stranded for the moment. Quins and Sarries are doing a lot of work in Brazil and rugby is massively on the rise in the country, hence waiting for them and Chile to improve is the idea first.

Post 2016 will be interesting. Getting these tier II sides a tournament, an autumn and summer series are the big things the IRB needs to get right to self support the game, which on olaying numbers is second only to soccer (I don't count China at ping pong or India at Cricket, anomalies at best)

What is more interesting is what happens to the World Cup set up then?

USA and Canada will count as NA or European? Does Uruguay get a free spot to the World Cup if USA and Canada in the short term are viewed as European sides?

??

According with last rumors (Federations officials here are very secretive because IRB told them so), ENC will stay in current format.

So new tournament will probably be played in June or November windows (can't see other way) so won't count for RWC qualification and most likely will be composed of:
USA, Canada, Georgia, Romania, Japan.

Anyway we played USA and Japan in 2012 and Canada in 2013 in November windows...so why not make a tournament out of this?

It's a tournament with development potential if you ask me, both for business (maybe Georgia and Romania less interesting, still RO is EU so not so much) and rugby ... no relegation or something like this.

So probably IRB Nations Cup (Bucharest or Tbilisi) will be scrapped or moved to other countries. So we might see Nations Cups with teams like Russia, Uruguay, Namibia, Portugal, Spain somewhere else (Lisbon, Barcelona, Bruxelles etc.)

About Belgium, they are still very far and I don't see how they'll progress quickly.

Summer could be more useful in terms of finding available stadiums, and a potential crowd willing to come along. No rugby, free fields, and a group of people who, if offered decent prices on the tickets, don't have any other live rugby to watch.

Does rather stiff Uruguay, though leaving them to play African teams would keep it all NH.