Nations Championship: Tries and tribulations

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Six wins for the North, six wins for the South.

It, it is very even.

Al- there's a lot of...

I think a lot of people being a, a little bit annoyed by scheduling and logistics and the apparent home games for some teams, which obviously aren't home games.

And I think this tournament is gonna take a year to probably iron those things out, CJ.

Am I right in thinking that? Is that fair?

Well, I think it's really fair, because they've taken so long to try and nail this down, and Ireland are playing Japan in Newcastle, Australia.

You know, there's, Eddie Jones has been on his podcast on the record saying it's because Ireland didn't wanna travel, and that is a horrible journey for them to go Australia, Japan, down to New Zealand.

I get, I get why Ireland would be reluctant to do that, because Japan's up here, Aussie and New Zealand are down here, admittedly like a few hours apart.

So if you're France, you go Japan first, then you go...

No, you go New Zealand first, then you go Aus, then you finish in Japan on the way home.

And if you're Italy, you go Japan first, then you come down and do New Zealand, then Aus- finish in Aus- Australia, then fly home.

Ireland are being asked to go Australia, up to New Zealand, back to New Zealand, all the way home, which would be absolutely minging, but-

So Ireland have just stayed in Australia

...

Ireland have stayed in Australia.

Uh, that, so I do hear conspiracy theorists that are like, "Well, where's the head of World Rugby? Where's that based?"

In D- Oh, uh, the, there is Irish influence, of course, but then you could extrapolate that and go there is Tier 1 influence.

J- Japan and F- Fiji have been welcomed into this competition, but they're the ones having to compromise, aren't they? Because they're the-

Yeah, which isn't fair, 'cause, 'cause the fact they're-

'Cause Fiji are the ones who haven't got any home games, and Japan are the ones who've had to play one of their home games-

Wow

... away from Japan.

Whereas if you're South Africa, you play your three at home.