Bernard Lapasset addresses delegates© Tom Shaw - IRB/IRB via Getty Images

World Rugby chief Bernard Lapasset is keen to bring the north and southern hemisphere seasons closer together as the game's key stakeholders continue to weigh up the long-term future of the sport.

With Sevens featuring in the 2016 Olympics, the future of the XV format of the game is set to be shaken up in the forthcoming years with a global season the idealistic blueprint. Lapasset, who is president of World Rugby, believes rugby must continue to evolve alongside other rival sports.

"We need to open up a new system for the 15-man game to bring the northern and southern hemisphere programmes closer together," Lapasset said. "I opened up the debate at the executive committee meeting in Dublin earlier this year. At the moment one has the Six Nations, which is successful and the Four Nations, which is less so.

"We have to look at the possibility of getting a new model of competitions, to grow profitability and to make it as attractive as possible to broadcasters. What is the best format, the quality of the competitions, the safety of the players? It is great to create opportunities and to aid the development of rugby.

"The Rugby World Cup is the third largest sports event in the world, after the Olympics and the football World Cup, which is huge for us. However, we must maintain our level."

And Lapasset predicts the USA will emerge as a new force in the game. He added: "I think fifteens is more open, professionalism has opened it up. The Fijians, Samoans and Georgians are playing more and more in the northern hemisphere club competitions, especially in France.

"The Georgians have a very good XV, while the Romanians are now showing signs of revival. The Americans, too, I believe will come through, because they embrace all sports in the US. Russia, though, is more complicated. Unless a sport is in the Olympics, they don't invest in it."