World Rugby moves at a pace best described as geological – in a footrace with continental drift, the non-governing governing body would be left in the starting blocks – but once in a blue moon, it does something sufficiently radical to suggest that it might be on the brink of life.
Case in point: the new-fangled, 12-team Nations Championship, which will descend upon us in six weeks’ time.

Unfortunately for the movers and shakers at the NGGB, who set themselves the task of giving shape and meaning to the July and November international programmes, the two market leaders in the union game qu...