The power grab will seemingly only serve to strengthen rugby's biggest nations at the expense of the Tier Two sides

A new deal has been agreed that will see Wales and nine other major rugby nations pool their commercial rights in a move that furthers their collective financial dominance of the sport and seemingly staves off any threat of relegation from the Nations Championship.

The teams from the Six Nations will join forces with the SANZAAR sides - South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina - in creating a new company to run the Nations Championship. It has been provisionally called F10, after the 10 founding unions; England, France, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Italy, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina.

The decision was made in a meeting in Sydney two weeks ago, with a dedicated chief executive to be appointed in order to focus on "commercial exploitation".

A right-management agency will also be created that will aggregate the commercial rights for a number of competitions.

“The Six Nations, Rugby Championship, Lions, Nations Championship, Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry will all be marketed and taken to market in a consolidated fashion,” Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney told journalists this week.

That would not take place until the end of existing arrangements for the Six Nations rights with ITV, which run through to 2029.

“In effect, what we are creating is a commercial rights agency which sits underneath those 10 founding unions,” Sweeney said. “We think that will result in a much better and more efficient approach to market and obviously with the intention of increasing overall valuations and growing the commercial side of the game.”

Sweeney added that he believed pooling the commercial rights of the northern and southern hemisphere teams would "increase the revenue significantly" on broadcasting rights.

It is possible that the broadcast rights could be bundled together, leading to one broadcaster buying it up to become essentially the home of rugby.

However, there is a fear that this power grab will cast Tier Two nations further adrift.

Japan and Fiji are involved in the inaugural Nations Championship, but only as guest nations - receiving a participation fee rather than a piece of any central commercial income.

Relegation fears look over

Promotion and relegation, which was intended for the Nations Championship when first backed by World Rugby's council three years ago, will seemingly not apply to the F10 nations.

That could come as a boost to Wales, given their standing towards the bottom of the northern hemisphere table - alongside Italy - at the moment. Such a demotion could have had a catastrophic financial and sporting impact for any relegated nation.

“There’s a review group that has been set up by World Rugby and is chaired by Brett Robinson,” Sweeney added. “They’re looking at how the aspect of promotion and relegation can be set up.

"The basic premise is still the same, how that comes into effect needs to be sorted out.”

Instead, either Japan or Fiji seem far likelier to make way for any new team in 2032.

With emerging nations playing in the secondary Nations Cup, it will continue to reduce the number of fixtures against Tier One nations - with World Cups the only realistic meeting place.

“I actually think this is better for the tier-two unions because you’ve got guaranteed fixtures, you’ve got more game time happening and you’ve got clarity about what you can play," said Sweeney.

The RFU CEO also confirmed that Qatar would not host the finals of the 2028 Nations Championship, due to unrest in the Middle East.

Both France and Spain have expressed an interest, while another finals weekend in London is another possibility.