South Africa rugby to join Six Nations in 2026

This article was last updated on May 2, 2022

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USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…South Africa and their fellow participants have committed to playing in the southern hemisphere’s Rugby Championship until at least 2025.

The announcement, made by the international rugby union tournament’s organisers Sanzaar, effectively ends any immediate prospect of South Africa joining the northern hemisphere Six Nations until 2026. However, that commitment is much shorter than the one made by the South African Rugby Union (SARU) in November 2020 when it said it would remain in the Rugby Championship until 2030.

“We’ve got a number of international and local broadcast deals that are extended to 2025. There was never any cause for alarm that we were never going to meet those obligations.

“We are coming out of the worst three years in living memory of financial impact.

“Everybody has to do their due diligence in exploring what competitions to be involved in and what provides the best opportunity for the best commercial outcome.

“The Six Nations, World Rugby, in all walks of life people are exploring their business models at the moment.”

Despite Sanzaar’s announcement, the Daily Mail is reporting that the SARU remains intent on joining the Six Nations in 2026.

With the country’s provincial sides set to participate in European tournaments from next season, the SARU reportedly intends to follow suit at the international level in a move that would see Italy replaced.

Speaking on the subject back in October, Six Nations chief executive Ben Morel said: “The Six Nations have added to and reduced its teams very few times in its 140 years, so it’s something we’d be very cautious about doing. We’re pretty happy with what we have, but we’re pretty sure it could be improved.”

According to the Mail, CVC, the private equity firm that in March 2021 acquired a one seventh share in the Six Nations for UK£365 million (US$497 million), is acting as a ‘driving force’ behind the scenes in promoting talks with the SARU. CVC reportedly sees ‘significant commercial gains’ for the tournament that can only be achieved with a major overhaul.