23 May 2009

Mini world championship should be considered - Henry

2:29 pm on 23 May 2009

A mini world championship involving the game's leading countries with results determining rankings for the World Cup would be more meaningful than the June and November Tests, the All Blacks coach Graham Henry says.

Henry, who is finalising his All Blacks squad for next month's Tests against France and Italy, would also like to see full rugby tours reinstituted rather than the hit and run test matches that occur under the current international windows.

Henry says that perhaps in the year of the Lions tour there should be tours instead of those Tests, so the French should tour one of the southern hemisphere countries and perhaps Italy or Argentina tour the other.

And he says in the other two years outside the World Cup, a mini world championship where the Six Nations and the Tri-Nations teams all play each other with some gradings from that going into World Cups.