Edinburgh lock Sam Skinner said he would relish the opportunity to play some of the world’s best club sides in the proposed Club World Cup.
European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), organisers of the Investec Champions Cup and Challenge Cup competitions, is in the process of putting together an agreement with its southern hemisphere counterparts on the new competition.
If the proposed new super-tournament gets the go-ahead, it would replace the knockout stages of the Champions Cup every four years, starting from 2028. In those years, there would be no European champion.
Rather than playing each other, the eight Champions Cup quarter-finalists would instead play six top-ranked Super Rugby Pacific teams and two guest sides, likely to come from Japan.
Edinburgh lock Skinner, a Champions Cup winner with Exeter in 2020, said he would relish the opportunity to play some of the world’s best club sides.
"It sounds cool, with some of the best sides, Crusaders, Chiefs and Brumbies, playing the top sides in Europe.
“How would the likes of Leinster get on against the Crusaders? They are typically the two that have been consistently at the top for the last 10 years. It would be interesting.”
While admitting the issue was “above my paygrade” Skinner said he would enjoy the chance to play some of the southern hemisphere superpowers.
"If you’re asking me if I would enjoy going down to the Southern Hemisphere and playing some rugby for Edinburgh in these top games, then yeah, it would be a good laugh.”
His club boss, Sean Everitt, welcomed the idea, but expressed concerns that the proposed new tournament would cause further logistical problems.
EPCR bosses want to accommodate the new format in June by moving the finals and knockout phases of domestic competitions - England's Premiership, the French Top 14 league and the United Rugby Championship - forward.
But Everitt - whose team return to South Africa for a Challenge Cup quarter-final with Sharks on Saturday, just two weeks after the teams met in Durban on league duty - is well aware of the challenges that might pose.
He said: “It would be great to be involved in something like that. I’d just like to know how they’re going to fit it into the rugby calendar.
“The calendar is quite congested now, especially when you look at the Six Nations running at the same time as the URC and you look at the Springboks playing in the Southern Hemisphere competitions during our off season.
“We’re always keen to play at the highest level but it will be interesting to see how they’re going to fit it into the calendar. Something would have to give somewhere because there are just not enough days in the year.”
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