Six Nations chief executive Ben Morel has ruled out any chance of the Springboks joining the northern-hemisphere tournament despite South Africa’s success in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship and Champions Cup.
South Africa’s club sides have successfully transitioned from the southern hemisphere Super Rugby to the Vodacom URC and Champions Cup based in the north. The DHL Stormers claimed the Vodacom URC title in the inaugural season, while South Africa got all three qualifying clubs sides – the Stormers, Sharks and Vodacom Bulls – through to the last 16 of the Champions Cup on first attempt.
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Away from the field, South Africa’s inclusion in the Vodacom URC in particular has helped the tournament reach record numbers in terms of broadcasting.
With this success, speculation has persisted that the Springboks are keen to join the Six Nations.
However in an interview with the Telegraph, Morel said there had been no discussions about expanding the tournament and ruled out introducing a promotion-relegation system.
“There is no conversation about expanding the Six Nations right now, the entire focus is on finding the right solution and improvements to the July and November windows and finding a more competitive narrative for those fixtures,” Morel told Telegraph Sport.
”Our whole energy of the Six Nations is focused on that. So there’s no conversation regarding anything else.
”There never has been. There has obviously been some interest, but we are not engaging in any of those conversations. We are focused on what we think is the right balance for the game, and that is finding competitive fixtures that will bring some pathway to the developing nations as well.
”We are having really productive calls and exchanges with the southern hemisphere on that and hopefully we can come to some agreement in the relatively short term and we believe that is in the interest of the game.”
Photo: Twitter: @Springboks