World Rugby wants a Six Nations match to be staged in the US and has offered financial incentives to the unions to do so – but England have effectively ruled themselves out on the grounds that fixtures at Twickenham are too lucrative.
The US will stage the 2031 World Cup and World Rugby is seeking to capitalise commercially despite mounting fears over the parlous state of rugby union in the host country. As a result, the governing body is desperate to raise interest in the sport’s profile by staging high-profile matches Stateside, with Baltimore hosting the fourth Test between South Africa and New Zealand on Saturday.
A failed attempt was made to attract the British & Irish Lions to stop in Las Vegas on the way to Australia in 2025, though England did face the USA in Washington that summer while the All Blacks and Ireland met in Chicago last autumn. The 2030 finals weekend of the Nations Championship has also been slated for the United States.
Taking a Six Nations match to America would be an altogether more significant move given how financially valuable home championship fixtures can be to the competing unions. But World Rugby is willing to help bridge the shortfall and has floated Ireland v Italy as a potential fixture, given the number of expats from each country on the east coast.
England can generate around £10m from a Six Nations home match and men’s fixtures at Twickenham account for about 85% of the Rugby Football Union’s revenues. It is understood that taking a championship fixture to the US is considered very unlikely by insiders, all the more so due to its naming rights deal with Allianz and the likely consternation that would arise among debenture holders.
If there was appetite among the other unions, however, the Six Nations committee would have to agree as would the tournament broadcasters, though ITV’s recent £1.6bn takeover by Sky, which is owned by the US telecoms giant Comcast, may help in that regard.
“In terms of the matchday economics, [South Africa v New Zealand] is like a Six Nations match,” World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin told the Telegraph. “It starts to show that [financial return] is not the barrier. So if there is the appetite to take some of these big matches in the future to the US, we can now.
“We completely understand [the] need for rugby to continue to drive more economic sustainability. Any of those unions [could] go and look at a match that they would have had at home and say, ‘Right, can I at least match, if not better my own economics by partnering with World Rugby and taking that match to the US?’”
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