What to look out for in 2024

SVNS - the new shape of sevens

The Sevens World Series has been relaunched for 2024, with the women's competition now being given complete equal billing with the men - same tournaments, same number of teams, same number of games. This is quite a step forward that even meant that the men's competitions had to shed teams and events to match the women.

The tournament also builds to a "final" in Madrid in May where the competition should reach its climax, and where four team will be battling to stay in the series.

Promotion and relegation will be bigger than ever with the launch of a 12-team "second tier" Challenger series, with three rounds producing four teams to challenge for places in next year's series, as well as providing a level of competition that will hopefully start to close the gap between teams in the series and those outside.

It may take a while to build that bridge - defeats for full strength World Series teams against teams outside the series are rare - but it is a great step forward that should lead to an extremely exciting promotion and relegation battle in May.

The Challenger Series also raises the stakes for regional sevens tournaments, as teams will have to re-qualify for the Challenger every year.

The new structure therefore opens up World Sevens, giving every team in the world a route to the top.

A more professional Six Nations

In August last year, Ireland announced 43 new contracts for its 15s players, which guaranteed that the 2024 Six Nations would be historic, with every team featuring players who are contracted in some way.

As recently as 2022 we were lamenting the canter at which England was churning through teams in the Six Nations, and though they will probably start as favourites again this year (even with their toughest game against France being away from home) progress has been made.

Wales are yet to hit their straps as a largely pro team but are starting to show the benefits of increased time together and better rest opportunity, while the new Six Nations calendar in the women’s game might have given Ireland much needed time to bed into their new era.

There are always haves and have nots in sport, and nations like England and France will always be buoyed by systems supported by greater participation numbers and stronger domestic leagues, but at last the days on reporting on out and out amateurs versus out and our professionals are coming to an end.

Hard launch of WXV 

Despite its ‘soft launch’ last year, pitted as it was against the men’s World Cup in France, the WXV started its life as a new competition in positive fashion.

It has helped to reinvigorate test rugby, with teams playing more tests, and playing opposition from outside their regions for the first time. It also produced a number of exciting games, with all three tournaments going down to the final match.

But there’s lots of room for improvement not least to the format, the crowds and the simplicity of how it is communicated and marketed.

There is still no confirmation of where the three competitions will be held in 2024, though it seems that France lead the race for the hosting rights for WXV1, with South Africa and Dubai in the frame again for tiers 2 and 3.

Hosting is always going to be a challenge for World Rugby to determine far enough in advance to satisfy everyone , given that some teams will not know which tier they will be qualified for till months before the competition, but France would be ideal hosts for the top tier in a period where much focus will be on the build-up for the 2025 World Cup, around which there are high expectations.

Either way, this year needs to be a step up, especially as this competition is being marketed as the revolutionary silver bullet to close a massive performance gap in women’s test rugby, where the top few teams are simply miles better than everyone else.

Olympic title up for grabs

The third edition of the Olympic Sevens is also lined up for Paris in the summer and promises to be the most hard fought yet.

Some 11 of the 12 teams will be from the World Series (only Spain will be missing), while the 12th will come via a world repechage due to take place in Monaco a few weeks before the game. That should be quite a tournament on its own, with China the favourites to take the final spot, though Poland will put in a strong battle.

With Australia ending 2023 on a high - with two wins in the first two rounds of the SVNS - plus strong performances from New Zealand, USA, and France, plus teams such as Fiji, Ireland, Canada and Great Britain improving all the time and capable of upsetting anyone, and South Africa appearing in the Games for the first time, the destination of the medals looks like being more in doubt than in previous Olympics.

There will not be any easy games in Paris.

Bedding in of new coaches 

Jo Yapp’s new role in Australia is probably the pick of the moves in head coaching land in the women’s game, but how Scott Bemand fares as the Irish head coach this year will also be fascinating as will John Mitchell’s tenure.

Yapp, widely recognised for how she combines magnificent player management with technical and tactical ability, takes on an Australian team which has shown terrific potential in recent seasons, despite lacking consistency.

Their stunning win over France, backed up with a win over Wales the week after, in WXV1 means that Yapp is inheriting a squad starting to believe they can cut it with the best on the international stage. All is not perfect with the game down under, with players recently expressing dissatisfaction with their governing union, but how Yapp gets this team gelling will be well worth watching.

Scott Bemand joined Ireland last summer and led the team to a win in WXV3, but having finished bottom of last year’s Six Nations table, he will face more pressure in helping the team climb the table this season.

With strong experience from his role with England under his belt, these games will be the real test of how he has managed to evolve the team.

John Mitchell, joined England in New Zealand during the WXV1 competition, but it will also be during the Six Nations that we will see his true imprint on the team.

He has described his team as "very good" but said they have the potential to be "phenomenal".

Very good might be enough to win them the Six Nations title in a few months time, but he is right that phenomenal must be the goal if they are to win the World Cup at home next year. How England play under his system will be a big draw this year.

The growth of new competitions 

Whether English or not, many will be rooting for Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) to be a big success.

Since a rebrand and relaunch last year, and the establishment of a new company to run the competition, led by the excellent Belinda Moore as CEO, PWR has an opportunity to define the future of the top elite domestic competitions look like in the women’s game.

Though there are less games available, the league’s broadcast deal with TNT Sports is providing coverage on a par with the quality of the men’s game, and helpfully, results have been largely competitive, with plenty to hook fans in.

If the league can build a sustainable future, then no one could do anything but cheer it on.

The future of other competitions will also be worth following.

Newer and a different model entirely, the Celtic Challenge Competition featuring teems from Ireland, Scotland and Wales, has been going well, with decent crowds and a chance for up and coming players to get an opportunity to shine.

If it can help those nations close the gap and built depth to compete with France and England at very least, it will be worth it .

Super Rugby Aukipi is also evolving, and comes back with a longer format this year with two preseason games followed by six weeks of round-robin before the final. The squads have been expanded by two players each to now offer teams 30 roster spots while the minimum pay of contracted players has doubled.

With longer term hopes to form some sort of combination with Super W in Australia, the evolution of this competition will be fascinating.