"Radical shake-up" - Rugby World Cup matches set to leave free-to-air TV

worth the trip, especially if there just magically happens to be a game rugby going on at Murrayfield on the same weekend."

Speaking to The Telegraph, Alan Gilpin pointed out the evolving landscape of sports broadcasting, notably impacted by the proliferation of streaming platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix, as a key factor in this uncertainty.

World Rugby is gearing up to auction the broadcasting rights for the next two iterations of its flagship event, as well as those of its women's counterpart, a long-held domain of ITV since 1991.

While World Rugby has pledged to keep the Women's World Cup in England, slated for two years from now, accessible to UK viewers without subscription, its CEO, Alan Gilpin, disclosed that decisions beyond that point remain undecided.

Diverging from their football counterparts, rugby union's major tournaments are only legally mandated to broadcast their finals on free-to-air channels in the UK, a rule that World Rugby has staunchly upheld, rebuffing prior efforts by Sky Sports to secure the rights.

He revealed World Rugby would consider a bid from pay-TV to show matches at the 2027 men’s tournament onwards 'as long as the content is made available across other platforms.'

But Gilpin did add: 'There’s no doubt that free TV and partners like ITV, who have been great partners for us, are a part of that future. Because we want to reach audiences that wouldn’t otherwise pay for a subscription for rugby.'

Reacting to the story, one fan wrote: "Dumb simple as that."

A second commented: "Surely not, would cut off a large part of viewership."

Another said: "Further killing off the game to a world wide audience! Let’s hope it doesn’t happen."

A fourth added: "How to kill a sport already struggling in certain countries…"

They've based their ranking, from most important to least, on six different categories:

Read their full analysis and ranking by CLICKING HERE.

Or check out the brief ranking below:

" The French also score below-average rating for both 

Away Support and Home Stadium Atmosphere, the latter not helped by the fact you need a telescope (never mind a pair of binoculars) to see the pitch (never mind the action) from some of the seats at the Stade de France."

They Said: "Like the French, they are let down by Away Support and, most impactfully, Home Stadium Atmosphere, which can often suffer from one-sided, processional performances on the pitch, although thankfully, these are becoming rarer occasions."

They said: "Argentinians are passionate about their rugby. Their anthem always gets me pumped too."

They said: "The All Blacks has plenty of history and part of that is down to the great support they receive from their fans."

They said: "They may have created the game, be the only side on the list to have won the World Cup and boast the largest stadium on the list but England's fans can only scrape a fourth place in our list"

Nigel Slater (no, not that one) from Facebook said: "Twickenham is a 'place of corporate knobs in chinos, blue shirt and tweed" 

They said: "Quite simply, no one matches the Celts for rugby and kicking off our top 3 are England's oldest enemies, the Scots. A spring visit up to the beautifully exquisite Edinburgh is always 

They said: "Guinnesses on tap at the home of the black stuff, the hum of Irish music whistling into the spring air from almost every pub and the world famous friendliness of the locals. There's nothing quite like a 'cultural' trip to Dublin on a Six Nations weekend."

They said: "It's not just the pure numbers that make Boks fans one of the best—they're enormously passionate and colourful, too."

They Said: "Topping our list of the best supporters with a mightily impressive score of over 9, are the Welsh. Quite simply, no one does it better. On a Six Nations matchday, eyes up and down the country from rural farmyard to remote rural pubs are fixed on the green, green grass of the national stadiums and the XV men wearing their country's red with pride. "