'Some rugby nations are going to disappear': How the Nations Championship is fuelling an existential crisis - Tier Two players paid 50 times less, a mass exodus to league and why 'have nots' scoff at proposed promotion to 'closed shop'

WHERE HEMISPHERES COLLIDE, scream the London Underground billboards, alongside marketing for West End musicals and blockbuster movies. Dramatic imagery of Maro Itoje, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu turns heads on the escalators. SIX MATCHES. THREE DAYS. TWO HEMISPHERES. ONE CHAMPION. Five-star entertainment, they promise. Buy your tickets now. The Nations Championship, they say, has been a resounding success. The Tests have been high quality, pulling together the best 12 teams in the world in rugby’s very own Super League. Players are unhappy about the amount of travel but the cheques are being banked.