Lift-off for Club Rugby World Cup: Plans take a huge step step forward after European bosses make concession

Plans for a World Club Cup have taken a massive step forward with the first tournament slated to take place in June 2028.

European rugby bosses are believed to have a signed a memorandum of understanding which could see the likes of Leinster, Toulouse and Saracens pitched against southern hemisphere giants like the Hurricanes, the Brumbies and the Chiefs.

And in a huge concession the domestic leagues are understood to have agreed to move their finals to May to clear the decks for the new tournament to be played as a stand-alone entity in June 2028.

That is a seismic shift especially for the French, whose final this year is due to played on 28 June whilst the Premiership final this season is on 8 June, with the URC finale two weeks later.

A well-placed source said: 'Those weekends need to go somewhere. That is a big thing for France, the French have been very protective of their Top 14 final but there is a desire to do something different every four years.'

EPCR, who run the Champions and Challenge Cups, only have eight weekends available during the season so they will use them for four rounds of pool matches plus this new tournament.

The Champions Cup will run as normal until the quarter-finals where European teams will be diverted into the new competition so there will be no Champions Cup winner that year.

Instead, the eight clubs will be drawn against the top six Super Rugby sides with two from Japan set to be added. Clubs who don't make the cut will be playing in a Super Challenge Cup at the same time.

The competition is set to be staged every four years with the 2028 version taking place in the northern hemisphere. Organisers are open to taking it to the southern hemisphere four years later but that would be dependent on broadcasting deals.

The source added: 'We are really motoring with that now.'

It should throw up the chance to see Europe's top players going toe-to-toe with the southern hemisphere stars in a club shirt. Rugby league has had a World Club Challenge since 1976 but that is a one-off game between the Super League winners and the NRL victors.

If the tournament had been in operation this season then Northampton, Harlequins, Exeter, South African side the Bulls, Irish giants Leinster, Antoine Dupont's Toulouse, La Rochelle and Bordeaux-Begles would have qualified from the Champions Cup.

On current Super Rugby standings, the Blues, the Hurricanes and the Chiefs from New Zealand plus Australian outfits the Brumbies, the Reds and the Melbourne Rebels would go through although Fijian Drua are an increasingly big noise in the tournament.

Two sides would then be added from Japan's League One currently headed by Saitama Wild Knights who have South African World Cup winners Damian de Allende and Lood de Jager on their books.

Plans are also advanced for a women's version of the Champions Cup to start in 2026, initially with four teams, including the winners of the Premiership Women's Rugby, and it will be expanded over time. A meeting is scheduled for June to thrash out the detail of that new tournament.