NZ Rugby sends director Greg Barclay and All Blacks assistant Jason Ryan to global season talks that could upend game

Sunday, 22 February 2026

Director Greg Barclay will represent New Zealand Rugby at crucial World Rugby talks next week.

All Blacks face switch to late summer rugby with little preparation time.
So-called global calendar is being driven hard by South Africa.
Domestic upheaval could also set scene for Super-NPC clash.

New Zealand Rugby will be represented by director Greg Barclay and All Blacks assistant coach Jason Ryan in crucial World Rugby talks in London next week about the shape of the game and, more importantly, the so-called global calendar.

South Africa is pushing hard for the global calendar, which despite its name is essentially a shift to the northern hemisphere rugby calendar - a move that would shift the Rugby Championship to February-March to align with the Six Nations.

The Sunday Star-Times understands that NZ Rugby will avoid a confrontational approach in the coming talks, signalling a desire to listen to the pros and and cons from various parties, but Barclay will nonetheless need to use the diplomatic and political skills he honed during his four-year spell as chair of the International Cricket Council to represent NZ Rugby’s interests.

A shift to a February-March window for the Rugby Championships could leave the All Blacks significantly underdone for tests against match-hardened South African and Argentinian players; create an overlap of the Super Rugby Pacific and NPC seasons; and complicate ongoing talks to set up the Club World Cup.

South Africa would unequivocally be the winners of a calendar shift, as their four big franchises - the Bulls, Stormers, Lions and Sharks - now play in European club competitions are already aligned with the northern hemisphere calendar.

SA Rugby has therefore launched a public and sustained lobbying campaign, and they have hinted they would be prepared to push ahead whether NZ Rugby likes it or not.

All Blacks assistant coach Jason Ryan before a test against France last July. Under a revamped calendar the All Blacks would play in February - with little preparation time.

“We may not achieve total agreement, but we can secure the majority consensus needed to move forward,” SA Rugby president Mark Alexander told SA Rugby Magazine this week in a lightly coded message. “That will require us to make hard decisions, where we must balance tradition with progress, national interests with global priorities and short-term pressures with long-term vision.”

If the South Africa push to change the calendar goes to vote at the World Rugby council, it would require 75% support of voting members, not unanimous backing.

NZ Rugby is currently represented by three members on the World Rugby council - Barclay, Bart Campbell and Dame Farah Palmer.

In the event of the global calendar going ahead - and it is understood that Rugby Australia is supportive of South Africa’s push - the All Blacks would likely go in relatively cold to the Rugby Championship against Springboks and Los Pumas players who are well into their club campaigns in Europe.

As previously reported by the Sunday Star-Times, NZ Rugby has already done some preliminary modelling on the Super Rugby Pacific season starting in April, after an earlier Rugby Championship.

Such a model would leave the All Blacks needing to find some meaningful rugby in January or early February to prepare for the moved Rugby Championship.

The alternative would be to start Super Rugby Pacific in September and lead into the Rugby Championship - in line with Europe - but there would obviously be significant commercial, logistical and player welfare repercussions of turning rugby into a summer sport.

Under the revamped global calendar, the July and November test windows would remain in place, while the current August-early October window for the Rugby Championship would be freed up for domestic competitions such as Super Rugby and the NPC.

With global season talks still at a relatively early stage, it is understood that NZ Rugby has not adopted an official position and in an ideal world any disagreements would be resolved behind closed doors before Sanzaar adopted an united front.

But Super Rugby clubs and provincial unions will be eagerly waiting for updates on what would be one of the biggest changes the game has seen since it turned professional.