Club World Cup gets World Rugby approval with seven Super clubs set to face nine from Europe, South Africa
Saturday, 14 February 2026
Super Rugby chief executive Jack Mesley ‘heavily involved’ in talks.
First format would include seven Super clubs and nine from European competitions.
Goal remains to have competition up and running in 2028.
The appetite for the long-awaited club world cup competition in 2028 remains strong despite scheduling challenges and is “being driven” by the European and South Africans, Super Rugby Pacific chief executive Jack Mesley has revealed to The Post.
Mesley has been “heavily involved” in the talks to stand up the 16-team competition, which would take place at the end of the respective domestic seasons in both hemispheres.
Fan interest in Crusaders v Stormers, Chiefs v Toulouse and Hurricanes v Leinster-type fixtures would likely be significant, and Mesley delivered some cautiously optimistic news for those desperate to see them happen.
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“We've got a working group that that includes the unions, the clubs and myself working in with representatives from EPCR [European Professional Club Rugby],” Mesley told The Post.
“We made some really good progress last year. We got World Rugby sanctioning for the competition, and we got approval from both boards [Super Rugby and EPCR] to continue to progress to the next level of investigation.
“Right now we are working through a few things to do with the calendar - finding the right amount of weeks in a very congested rugby calendar.
'…It's still chugging along. We're really excited by it. Our clubs are really excited by it and they want to go and prove a point.“
The competition would feature 16 teams and take place across four weeks.
Initially it was reported that six or seven teams would come from Super Rugby, one or two for Japan and eight from Europe but those plans have been tweaked.
“For the first iteration we're looking at seven Super teams and nine from Europe,” Mesley said.
“[Japanese clubs] are not in the first iteration. We'd love them to be part of it.
“Because of their international schedule and where their league finishes they're not in for iteration one should it get up, but we certainly want them to be a part of it.”
Super Rugby clubs would qualify from their final standings in the 2028 Super Rugby season - adding significant jeopardy to that campaign - and their performances against the European and South African teams would be a major talking point.
There are clearly some tricky hurdles to get over, first on the calendar and then the commercial aspects, but crucially Mesley indicated that the EPCR appetite was strong, with England, France and South Africa understood to be particularly supportive.
“The EPCR have been driving this,” Mesley said. “And EPCR is obviously a representative of all of those [European] leagues.
“They are pushing this hard, and they want it.
“Our world is complex, but we have one league and 11 clubs. Their world is many, many levels more complex if you think of how many clubs they have across across the URC, [English] Prem and Top 14.
“Their calendar is a lot more complicated with ours with their leagues already having interruptions for Six Nations and EPCR [Champions Cup].
“But despite that, EPCR have been outward public-facing with their desire for this, and they are doing a lot of the heavy lifting and getting World Rugby approval.”
Super Rugby Pacific has been kicked from pillar to post by northern hemisphere and South Africa critics since its formation, but Mesley was quietly confident they would be successful on and off the field.
“I think it would be really compelling for a fan,” he said. “We're really confident about what sort of a product it would develop into.
“And there’s been a bit of debate about Super Rugby. We’re keen to go and show that to the world.”
– Read the second part of The Post’s interview with Jack Mesley on Monday.