PLANS FOR A new global 12-a-side rugby tournament have been announced this morning, with an aim of bringing £250 million into the sport across a five year period and opening up the game to a new audience.
This morning’s World 12s launch laid out an ambitious plan to attract 192 of the world’s best male players to compete across eight franchise teams with a promise of “unprecedented prize money” for the tournament winners.
The first World 12s tournament is planned to take place in England across three concurrent weekends provisionally set for August and September next year, with a women’s tournament launching from 2023.
However World 12s Limited have only held “informal, low key” discussions with World Rugby so far, and have yet to get approval for the tournament.
The eight franchise teams – made up of 24-man squads – will be confirmed following an auction later this year, with those teams then taking part in a separate auction for players. Each franchise will be required to select at least two players from Tier Two nations as well as one international U20s player.
This morning’s announcement made clear that players could be handsomely paid for taking part in the tournament. There will be salary caps on squads, but all players within a squad will not be required to receive equal pay.
12-a-side.
— World 12s (@World_12s) September 7, 2021
Global Superstars.
Rugby's Brightest Minds.
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Former RFU CEO Ian Ritchie is on board as World 12s chairman, with World Cup winning coaches Steve Hansen and Jake White on board as ambassadors, as well as former England international Ugo Monye and former South Africa flanker Schalk Burger. Other board and executive members include former NZRU CEO Steve Tew (non-executive director), and former chairman of the WRU Gareth Davies (non-executive director).
“World 12s is a natural evolution for rugby union,” Richie said. “We feel that this is a game for our changing, fast-paced world that can excite a global fan base in the way that we have seen with the IPL or most recently The Hundred in cricket.
“In bringing together the most exciting players under the stewardship of some of the brightest rugby minds with commercial backing, we are looking to propel rugby forward and lay a positive roadmap for how the game is perceived for future generations.
“Early and informal discussions with World Rugby, unions, clubs and player associations have been constructive, and in announcing today we can continue our consultative conversations and collaborations with the relevant stakeholders.”
When asked about the challenges of introducing a new tournament into an already packed rugby calendar, Richie acknowledged the difficulties the World 12s format is likely to face.
“We want to be collaborative. We want to discuss this with all the stakeholders, whether it be the northern hemisphere or southern hemisphere, and we want to try reach an agreement with everybody about what is the best time in the calendar and how do we get to player release – we all know player release is different, sometimes it’s clubs, sometimes it’s unions.
“We just can’t not let something happen because of its degree of difficulty. We think that getting eight franchises and 192 of the world’s best players and eight of the world’s best coaches into a format is going to be truly exciting.
“The difficulties are of course there. What we are doing today is launching the process, hopefully with some fair wind behind us, and then we’ll sit down and enter the difficulties.
“Having sat in global calendar discussions over the last few years, we know how difficult that is. We hopefully can enter those discussions and get a result, but yes, like all innovations, it has its challenge, has its difficulties, and this is the start of the process.
“But we think this is an idea that is really, really worth progressing for rugby.”
The tournament already has backing from a UK-based financial consortium, as well as a consortium of private investors.
Games will consist of two halves of 15 minutes, and use the traditional scoring format from 15s rugby, although conversions will be taken as drop goals. Teams will consist of six backs and six forwards, and there will be a restriction on the amount of game time per player.
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