The first Rugby World Club Cup will take place in 2028, the European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) has announced.
A tournament featuring the best club sides from both the northern and southern hemispheres, which will be held every four years, has received unanimous backing from the sport’s governing bodies.
Sixteen teams will qualify – eight from the Champions Cup and the remainder drawn from Super Rugby Pacific and Japan.
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Ahead of Saturday’s Champions Cup final between the Northampton Saints and Bordeaux Bègles in Cardiff, EPCR chair Dominic McKay confirmed an idea mooted for “the last two or three years” will now be delivered.
“We’ve been trying to work our way through this project to see if we can deliver it,” said McKay.
“And over the last few days we’ve had great meetings with our Board, great meetings with our General Assembly, who represent the three leagues (the Top 14, United Rugby Championship and English Premiership) and stakeholders from seven unions, and everyone is unanimous about wanting to deliver a World Club Cup – through EPCR.”
The tournament will launch in June 2028, elevating the Champions Cup knock-out rounds to the Rugby World Club Cup and “supercharging” the closing stages of the EPCR Challenge Cup, the EPCR said.
McKay added: “The Investec Champions Cup is the greatest club competition in the world, and we’re going to continue to protect that, nurture it and develop it further.
“We’ve got some ambitious plans for both the Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup, which we’ll unveil over the coming weeks.
“And, to elevate the whole of professional club rugby, we want to create this World Club Cup proposition in 2028 and 2032 with our friends from the South.
“We have these incredible competitions that we own and operate, and we want to find a way to elevate them further and bring in teams from Australia, from New Zealand, from Japan, and we’ll do that through the World Club Cup.”
