World Rugby announces historic eligibility regulation reform

A historic programme of reform of rugby’s international eligibility regulation has been approved by the World Rugby Council at its special meeting in Kyoto, Japan.

World Rugby has decided to extend the residency requirement to switch national teams from three to five years from the end of 2020 in order to "promote and protect the integrity and sanctity of international rugby in the modern elite environment."

The reform of Regulation 8 follows a root-and-branch review with Council members unanimously approving the recommended increase in the required residency period to be eligible for international rugby from 36 to 60 months. 

The reformed Regulation 8 ensures that a player has a genuine, close, credible and established a link with the nation of representation, and the key amendments are:

• The 36-month residency requirement is increased to 60 months with effect from 31 December 2020 (unanimously approved)
• The addition of a residency criterion which permits players who have 10 years of cumulative residency to be eligible (effective May 10, 2017) (unanimously approved)
• Unions may no longer nominate their U20s team as their next senior national representative team (effective 1 January 2018) (majority)
• Sevens players will only be captured for the purposes of Regulation 8 where the player has represented either of (i) the senior national representative sevens team of a union where the player has reached the age of 20 on or before the date of participation; or (ii) the national representative sevens team of a union in the Olympic Games or Rugby World Cup Sevens, having reached the age of majority on or before the date of participation in such tournament (effective 1 July 2017) (majority)

The landmark decision follows agreement on a long-term optimised global international calendar beyond 2019 and represents another major reform for World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont and Vice-Chairman Agustín Pichot in the first year of their four-year mandate.