All Blacks captain Richie McCaw is backing plans for a world series championship to provide top-level international competition between Rugby World Cups.
The International Rugby Board is considering the introduction of a biennial tournament, concerned at the lack of intensity shown by weakened European countries when they travel
to the Southern Hemisphere at the end of their domestic seasons.
The IRB is anxious to give those tests meaning to boost their commercial value.
Britain's Daily Mail newspaper reported that under the IRB proposal, all Six Nations matches and some Tri-Nations tests would count towards the "world series" along with the inter-hemisphere tours in June and November, and other matches involving Argentina.
Ten countries would be involved - New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, Wales, France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy and Argentina.
The final would be held at a giant venue such as Wembley Stadium in London to make it financially attractive.
The competition would provide the All Blacks, whose domination of world rugby seems to come unstuck every four years at the World Cup, with the opportunity for competitive recognition in the intervening years.
But McCaw believes it would not only be good for New Zealand, but for the game globally.
"If it's done right it could add something to world rugby, it could be a real spectacle," McCaw told reporters in England yesterday.
The project will be up for discussion next month and McCaw, present when it was first talked about at last year's IRB workshop in Woking, England, would support its introduction.
"Instead of guys just turning up at the end of the season to play tests with nothing riding on it, it might add something and keep the excitement up for both fans and players," he said.
"If they can work something out it could be good - as long as they don't want to take anything away from the World Cup as the real pinnacle."
An IRB spokesman told the Daily Mail it would push for a 2010 start.
"A lot of goalposts will need a lot of shifting if the world series is to get off the ground before the next World Cup in 2011," the spokesman is quoted as saying.
"It's a complex jigsaw with a lot of obstacles to be overcome but the idea is taking shape."
- NZPA
