World Series Rugby

World Series Rugby (WSR)
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2018 World Series Rugby season
Sport Rugby union
Founded 2018 (2018)
Inaugural season 2018
No. of teams 9
Country Australia
Fiji
Hong Kong
New Zealand
Samoa
Tonga
Japan
Related
competitions		 Mitre 10 Cup
National Rugby Championship
Pacific Challenge
Super Rugby
Top League

World Series Rugby (abbreviated WSR) is a rugby union series conceived and supported by the Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest.[1] It was devised after the Western Force rugby team based in Perth, Western Australia was dropped from the Australian Super Rugby Conference.[2] In the initial year of 2018, a series of exhibition matches was played as the precursor to a wider Asia-Pacific competition planned for 2019.[3]

For 2018 World Series Rugby, the newly reformed Western Force played international teams from Hong Kong, Samoa, and Tonga along with Super Rugby teams the Crusaders and Melbourne Rebels, Japanese Top League team Panasonic Wild Knights, and the Fiji Warriors, the second-tier national side. The series began on 4 May 2018.[3][4][5]

Indo Pacific Rugby Championship

World Rugby Series is a series of exhibition games for a new tournament. Following SANZAAR's decision to reduce the number of Super Rugby teams for 2018, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) announced in August 2017 that the Force would be one of the teams cut from the 2018 competition. In September 2017, Force owner Andrew Forrest launched the Indo Pacific Rugby Championship, a tournament set to start in March 2019 which will consist of the Western Force and five other teams from the Indo-Pacific region. Several countries – such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka – have already expressed an interest in joining the new competition.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Andrew Forrest doesn't back losers, we await his world series with interest". The Australian. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  2. ↑ "Western Force dumped from Super Rugby". The West Australian. 11 August 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Western Force to return to action in World Series Rugby". ESPN. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  4. ↑ "Force unveil squad, schedule for World Series Rugby". The Chronicle. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  5. ↑ "Andrew Forrest unveils Force squad, schedule for World Series Rugby". Fox Sports. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
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