An agreement is close among the world’s top rugby nations for the introduction of a new major international competition that would put an end to tours by individual countries, according to a report in British weekly newspaper The Sunday Times.

The 12-team tournament, split into two divisions, would take place in the current international blocks in the annual rugby calendar – in November and July. The top tier would include six national teams from each hemisphere, with a second division featuring Tier 2 countries such as Georgia, Romania, Spain and United States.

Promotion and relegation between the two leagues would then force Tier 1 nations to play fixtures away in lesser known rugby territories – something that rarely occurs under the current tour system.

The competition could begin in 2020 if sponsors, commercial backers and broadcasters can be agreed in time.

The Sunday Times report that this is the most popular option put forward, with the tournament to take place annually for three years, with the fourth year left free for the World Cup, which has also seen talk of expansion.

In the top tier, European teams are set to face southern hemisphere nations, before the league format leads to semi-finals and a grand final. Importantly, there is no word of whether the tournament would see the number of Test matches played between countries reduced. Both World Rugby executives and players’ unions have previously campaigned for a decrease in the number.

Crucially, however, the introduction of the annual competition would prove a huge boost to the profile of the sport’s smaller nations which, until the conceptualising of the new tournament, had been under-represented and widely ignored in international rugby spheres.