Does rugby need the Nations Championship?
6/29/202652 min
The inaugural Nations Championship starts this weekend but does rugby need it? Do fans even know or care what it is?
Will Kelleher, Alex Lowe and Charlie Morgan are in South Africa ahead of England's match in Johannesburg on Saturday. They ask whether the re-vamped format will be successful or if it will struggle to breakthrough during a busy summer of sport.
Could it be a good thing long term? Or is it an unnecessary innovation?
They also look ahead to the opening weekend of fixtures and discuss the incredibly strong Springboks team named on Monday morning by Rassie Erasmus.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsWill Kelleher· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hello, everyone. This is The Ruck, the journalist rugby podcast from The Times and The Sunday Times. And welcome one, welcome all to three weeks of utter Nations Championship madness. We're here with England in Johannesburg. You can hear the babbling brook of the swimming pool behind us at our hotel. We've begun our global odyssey following what you now must call the inaugural Nations Championship, everybody. We'll be here in South Africa, up in Liverpool, and over in Argentina, giving you three pods a week, Monday, Thursday, Saturday night, with our epic team on the ground. And here they are, fresh as daisies, I think. It's Alex Lowe.
Alex Lowe· Panelist0:50
Yeah, fresh. Fresh. Hello.
Will Kelleher· Host0:51
Hello.
Alex Lowe· Panelist0:52
Good to be here. Midwinter.
Will Kelleher· Host0:53
And Charlie Morgan.
Charlie Morgan· Panelist0:54
Less fresh, but raring to go- Yeah, Charlie's landed- ... I would say ...
Alex Lowe· Panelist0:57
this morning, Monday. I got in Sunday in time to join Will and a couple of others in a bar to watch the World Cup, Bafana Bafana against Canada in the World Cup, which is one of those things where I got back to the room, and all the football writers who were out at the World Cup were like, "Oh, thank God that didn't go to extra time. What a turgid game. Such low quality." We were in this bar full of really excitable South Africa fans, and it was low quality, but that seemed to make it. There seemed to be loads of errors, and space, and chances, and last-ditch defending, and we re- we really enjoyed it.
Will Kelleher· Host1:28
It was great fun.
Alex Lowe· Panelist1:28
Yeah.
Will Kelleher· Host1:29
And, and there was some quite wild,