The biggest sides in the northern and southern hemispheres clash in this new international competition starting on Saturday 4 July. Here’s everything you need to know…
The Nations Championship brings together the rugby giants of the Six Nations and the Nations Championship – along with Fiji and Japan – in a new biennial competition.
With games played (mostly) in the southern hemisphere in July, and in Europe in November, the new tournament is designed to bring a competitive edge to the traditional summer and autumn internationals.
But how will the new competition work? How is the winner decided? Will there be promotion and relegation from the Nations Championship? And why are some of July’s “southern hemisphere” matches being played in Cardiff, Liverpool and Edinburgh?
All these questions and more will be answered below in our Nations Championship explainer.
Nations Championship 2026: At a glance
– Southern hemisphere fixture dates: Saturday 4 July-Saturday 18 July 2026
– Northern hemisphere fixture dates: Friday 6 November-Saturday 21 November 2026
– Finals weekend dates: Friday 27 November-Sunday 29 November 2026
– Participating teams: Argentina, Australia, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, Wales
– Broadcasters: ITV (UK – free), Virgin Media (Ireland – free), TF1 (France – free), Stan Sport (Australia), Sky Sport (New Zealand), SuperSport (South Africa), Sky Italia (Italy), Wowow (Japan)
1. What is the Nations Championship?
The Nations Championship is a biennial international tournament featuring 12 teams – six from the northern hemisphere and six from the southern hemisphere. (For the purposes of the tournament, Japan have been placed in the south.)
The tournament has been created by Six Nations Rugby and SANZAAR.
2. Which teams are competing?
The Six Nations sides (England, France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy and Wales), the four Rugby Championship teams (New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina), plus two invitational teams in Japan and Fiji.
3. When will the games be played?
The Nations Championship will take place in years when there is no Rugby World Cup or British & Irish Lions tour. The competition is designed to “enhance the existing July and November international windows within the rugby calendar”.
The July fixtures will be played across three weekends from Saturday 4 July to Saturday 18 July.
The November fixtures will be played over three weekends running from Friday 6 November to Saturday 21 November.
This year’s competition will conclude with a finals weekend at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, running from Friday 27 November to Sunday 29 November.
Antoine Dupont’s France side kick off their Nations Championship against the All Blacks in New Zealand (Paul ELLIS / AFP via Getty Images)
4. What is the format of the new competition?
Instead of the traditional summer tours where teams would tour a single country, northern hemisphere sides will face three different opponents. The Six Nations teams form the ‘Europe’ group and the southern hemisphere sides are known as the ‘Rest of the World’. In July, the European teams head south to play their three games and in November the Rest of the World make the reciprocal visit to Europe.
Across both the July and November blocks, a team will play every side in their opposing group. For example, this summer England will play South Africa, Fiji and Argentina away. In the autumn, they will play Australia, Japan and New Zealand at home.
5. Where can I watch the Nations Championship?
Fans in the UK, Ireland and France can watch matches for free:
- UK – ITV
- Ireland – Virgin Media
- France – TF1
Australia’s home games will also be available for free across the Nine network.
Elsewhere the games will behind a paywall:
- Australia – Stan Sport
- New Zealand – Sky Sport
- South Africa – SuperSport
- Italy – Sky Italia
- Japan – Wowow
6. Why are some games taking place in the northern hemisphere in July?
Fiji have sacrificed home advantage to take part in the championship. The country’s rugby ground in Suva, HFC Bank Stadium, doesn’t meet competition requirements and can only hold around 15,000 people.
When Scotland played there last summer, losing 29-14, there were only 12,000 fans in attendance – well short of the 25,000 capacity that the Nations Championship demands.
Instead, Fiji will play Wales in Cardiff, although not at the Principality Stadium but at the Cardiff City Stadium, home of both Cardiff City FC and the Welsh national football team. They will then face England at Everton FC’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium in what will be the first rugby fixture to take place at the venue. Fiji will then ‘host’ Scotland at Scottish Gas Murrayfield to round off their opening three fixtures.
Fiji Rugby chairman John Sanday says playing home games in the UK was something Fiji couldn’t turn down due to the “economic windfall” it will bring.
“It’s a transformational opportunity for us,” he said. “Never before would we have been able to have this kind of revenues… which we then can invest back into our facilities and high performance.”
Fiji will ‘host’ Wales at the Cardiff City Stadium in July (Ian Cook – CameraSport via Getty Images)
7. How do you win the new competition? Where will the finals be?
The point of the tournament is to unify traditional standalone summer and autumn Tests. It’s similar to what happened in football with the Nations League, which was created to add more meaning to previous friendly matches.
After the last three rounds of the Nations Championship in November, there is a Finals Weekend in London at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham from Friday 27 November to Sunday 29 November.
Every team will have a ‘Finals game’ against the team that finished in the same position as them in the corresponding group. For example, if Wales finish fifth in the Europe/North group, they will face the fifth-place finisher in the South group.
The winners of the competition will be crowned on 29 November when the first-place finishers of the North and South groups meet in the grand final.
To buy match tickets, fans should go through the usual host union channels. An adult ticket for all three days of the Finals Weekend starts at £242 or you can buy a ‘Support Your Team’ ticket, covering both games played that day, for £164.80. See the Nations Championship website for the various options available.
8. Why are Ireland not travelling to Japan to play the Brave Blossoms?
Eagle-eyed fans may have noticed in the Nations Championship fixtures below that Ireland will face Japan in Australia in July.
Andy Farrell’s men will take on the Brave Blossoms at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle, NSW on Saturday 11 July. The fixture will be the first neutral Test to be staged in Australia since the pandemic. The venue last saw international action in 2025 when the Wallabies beat Fiji.
Japan coach Eddie Jones is unhappy that the fixture against Ireland is taking place in Australia. “You know why we’re playing Ireland in Newcastle? Ireland have all the power at World Rugby,” Jones said on the Rugby Unity podcast. “So we have to play our home game, that should be in Tokyo, in Australia to make sure Ireland don’t have to travel too much – let’s be frank about it.
“We have to just suck it up and that’s what happens when you’re not a major political power at the table.”
Ireland will play Australia in Sydney the week before they face Japan, before moving on to New Zealand.
Ireland will renew their epic rivalry with the All Blacks in the third round of Nations Championship matches this July (Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
9. What about the other international teams?
Outside the main championship, another 12 sides will compete in the second-tier Nations Cup which takes place concurrently. The first batch of matches take place across the Americas this summer.
The teams taking part have been split into two pools and all 12 have qualified for the 2027 World Cup in Australia. Pool A (Americas and Pacific) comprises Canada, Chile, Samoa, Tonga, Uruguay and USA. Pool B (Europe, Africa and Asia) comprises Georgia, Hong Kong, Portugal, Spain, Romania and Zimbabwe.
Each team plays three Tests in each window, but unlike in the Nations Championship there is no Finals day, so the team topping the table will take the plaudits. If teams are level on points, teams will be separated first by number of wins, and then by points difference.
10. Will there be promotion and relegation between the Nations Championship and Nations Cup?
Not currently. World Rugby has said that all stakeholders will look at potentially introducing this from the 2030 edition onwards.
Will the Nations Championship Tests count towards the world rankings?
Yes, just like normal summer and autumn Tests, the games will contribute to the rankings. South Africa are currently the world’s number one team, ahead of New Zealand, Ireland and France.
11. How can I keep up with the Nations Championship action?
Nations Championship wall chart 2026 (Rugby World)
Rugby World has made a handy wall chart to help you keep up with the Nations Championship as rugby’s newest competition progresses. It lists every match across the summer and autumn, including the finals weekend taking place at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, in late November.
The wall chart can be downloaded as a PDF here, so you can print it off, stick it on your wall and fill in the results as they happen.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: rugbyworld.com
