KEY POINTS:
Richie McCaw's All Blacks could be competing for a $27 million world prize at Wembley in 2010.
The Daily Mail newspaper said the $27 million purse would be attached to a World Series of Rugby, held every two years and on which the International Rugby Board is expected to take a significant step next month.
The tournament would feature the top 10 nations - New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, England, Wales, France, Ireland, Scotland and Italy, the paper said.
What has up until now been only a talking point has been invested with some urgency as rugby seeks to shore up a global test match calendar which has increasingly drifted into the meaningless and insignificant.
Rugby is seeking to put new meaning into end-of-season tours to the Southern Hemisphere by French, English and Welsh teams weakened by their obligations to fulfil TV contracts at home.
The All Blacks have already sought assurances from France that they will send a more competitive squad to New Zealand in June than the one that was fielded in Australia earlier this year.
The French are yet to respond but a strong French squad is highly unlikely as their championship final will likely be delayed because of a concert at Stade de France.
Such frustrations are why the IRB is looking to a World Series at the same time as New Zealand and Australia are looking to beef up the Super 14.
The series formula will be worked out next month and put to the IRB in November. A round robin competition would see all 10 teams play each other once - with some Tri Nations and all Six Nations games counting towards the World Series.
The Series would be fought out in a points table with a bonus point system.
One plan, says the Daily Mail, is for different teams to play tests against Argentina in fallow weeks of the Tri Nations.
Home country teams would alternate between visiting Argentina and South Africa at the end of one season; with New Zealand and Australia to be visited next season. Return fixtures would be held at Twickenham, Cardiff, Murrayfield and Dublin every November, as now.
The final would be staged at Wembley, Twickenham or Cardiff although Wembley's 90,000 seats offers extra financial clout in reaching the target of £10m in revenue for that match alone, said the Mail.
The paper's rugby writer, Peter Jackson, was also full of praise for the All Blacks and McCaw.
"McCaw is the outstanding player of his generation.
"With him, the All Blacks win 90 per cent of their matches; without him, they lost twice last summer.
"He could not inspire the All Blacks to a World Cup victory last year but they deserve credit for reclaiming their customary pedestal as the untouchables of every non-World Cup year."
