Changes to rugby union's global calendar will not come in before 2024, governing body World Rugby has confirmed.
All Black first-five Richie Mo'unga. Photo: PhotoSport / Andrew Cornaga
Discussions have taken place for much of the past year, with leading figures calling for a drastic revamp of the game's schedule.
There will be a new competition in place come 2024, with World Rugby saying "format change is the key to increasing interest and value".
But any move to amalgamate the July and November windows has been scrapped.
A cross-hemisphere working group has been meeting since March 2020 to thrash out the new calendar.
One proposal was to move the international windows, with the July window shifting to October to allow a longer block of international fixtures in the autumn, meaning the three windows would become two.
While this idea had the support of some leading administrators and coaches, it has been abandoned after opposition from the club game and on player welfare grounds.
However, World Rugby insists there remains an appetite from across the game to establish a new annual competition to give the July and November Test matches a fresh narrative and greater meaning.
World Rugby says the unions, clubs and players are all in agreement that this format change is necessary, while retaining the existing summer and autumn international blocks.
But if a revised version of the Nations Championship is established come 2024, the Six Nations would continue to stand alone as a competition, ruling out promotion and relegation.
The Nations Championship-style format would not take place in Rugby World Cup years and would be modified in a British and Irish Lions year.
Meanwhile, an announcement on the global structure of the women's game is expected within the next few months.
"Strong progress is also being made on optimisation of the four-year women's international calendar with the ambition of providing greater opportunities for teams, while supporting an expanded and more competitive Rugby World Cup," said a World Rugby statement.
-BBC
