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The Nations Championship begins in a month and it will be a stress test for investors looking at rugby, Neil Barlow says.
International rugby tournaments have always been the sport’s biggest draws. There is nothing quite like the Six Nations to bring out classic memes of rugby fans wearing bootcut jeans and loafers filling pubs. The World Cup continues to pull in the viewing figures. England’s semi-final contest against South Africa in the 2023 tournament was one of ITV’s most watched broadcasts that year.
Rugby’s wider relevance is generally concentrated around these big set-piece moments. That is partly what the Nations Championship hopes to fix when it launches in July. A new tournament combining the best northern and southern hemisphere teams, it brings a more competitive layer to what had been more ‘friendly’ summer tours and autumn internationals.
It’s not the only thing it hopes to fix. While international rugby is the commercial engine of the sport, it has sold itself in fragments. Beyond the World Cups and Six Nations tournaments, its calendar has been difficult to follow and rights hard to package. That’s the other issue the tournament hopes to fix, and it’s why prospective investors will be circling.
Nations Championship is commercially inviting
The Nations Championship should create a much stronger commercial spine for the international game. More predictable game windows, extra jeopardy and a finals weekend which provides a climax to the action.
Sports which can be more easily understood are much more attractive investment opportunities. A global competition that turns the current July and November international rugby windows into a single tournament gives rugby an extra reason to be in the public eye.
There are early signs that the market sees its potential. ITV securing exclusive free-to-air rights in the UK gives the tournament access to a wide audience from the start. The “Super Saturday” opener of wall-to-wall games – including South Africa vs England at Ellis Park and New Zealand vs France in Christchurch – is a marketer’s dream.
But the tests of the new format will come quickly. While summer tours lacked the commercial draw of a Rugby World Cup, they brought romance. Autumn internationals were more than just friendlies because of the scarcity of seeing the northern and southern hemispheres play each other. League structures can expose levels too. If England vs Australia is now just a match between sixth and seventh in the Nations Championship, it will seem less attractive.
Watching from afar…
Investors will be watching closely from kick-off. The Nations Championship will shine a light on whether rugby can turn its status in the sporting hierarchy into a more investable proposition. The rest of the sport will be watching too. Prem Rugby’s recent move towards ringfencing is an obvious play to make itself more attractive to outside investment by bringing more certainty. If the Nations Championship brings in new fans, it’s good for the wider club game.
Supporters are right to be wary of new formats and innovations that just prioritise commercials. But rugby has spent too long relying on moments of brilliance to compensate for a lack of commercial structure. The Nations Championship is an opportunity to align the two.
The stakes are high. Success will suggest international rugby can bring a more substantial proposition to the market. But failure may point to a sport with strong appeal among its core fans, but a wider audience not ready to truly embrace it all year round. As rugby fights for a more global footing to bring in more investment, it’s worth taking the risk to find out.
Neil Barlow is a partner at law firm Clifford Chance
