The Rugby Nations Championship will bring competitive rugby to the international rugby calendar during the summer and autumn international periods.
What is the Rugby Nations Championship? The new competition explained
The Rugby Nations Championship is a new rugby competition that will take place in the summer and autumn international windows. In the past, these periods were saved for teams to go on tours of a specific location. For example, in 2025, France went on a Summer tour of New Zealand, where they played three tests against the All Blacks, whereas in the Autumn New Zealand travelled to the Northern Hemisphere to play Ireland (in Chicago), Scotland, England and Wales
The Nations Championship will aim to add a competitive edge to these fixtures and offer more incentive than just World Ranking points for these international sides. The tournament will still have all the summer fixtures played in the Southern Hemisphere, while the autumn fixtures will still be played in the Northern Hemisphere. The finals of this series will be played at Twickenham in November.
The competition will run every other year, taking a break for Lions tours and World Cup years.
How the Nations Championship format works
The Rugby Nations Championship consists of two pools of six teams, the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. The tournament will be spread across two international periods in the summer and the autumn. Each northern hemisphere team will play all six southern hemisphere teams across the two windows.
After each team has played six matches, there will be a finals weekend during which teams with the same rank in each conference will play each other. The summer fixtures will take place in the southern hemisphere, and the autumn fixtures will take place in the northern hemisphere.
The 12 teams: Who is competing in the Top Tier?
| Northern Hemisphere | Southern Hemisphere |
| England | Argentina |
| France | Australia |
| Ireland | Fiji |
| Italy | Japan |
| Scotland | New Zealand |
| Wales | South Africa |
The ‘Northern Hemisphere’ conference is made up of the six teams from the Six Nations, while the ‘Southern Hemisphere’ conference is made up of the four Rugby Championship teams plus Japan and Fiji.
The Rugby Nations Cup: Path for Tier 2 Nations
The Rugby Nations Cup is a tier 2 competition that will run alongside the Rugby Nations Championship. This competition will run with a similar format where there will be six teams in a Europe, Asia and Africa conference and a conference for teams in the Americas and Pacific. The 2026 competition will feature the teams outside of the top 12 who will compete in the 2027 World Cup.
Promotion and Relegation: The 2030 Timeline
After the competition has been run twice in 2026 and 2028, promotion and relegation will be introduced to bring a dynamic and competitive edge to the competition.
Where does this leave the Six Nations and The Rugby Championship?
The Six Nations and Rugby Championship will be relatively unaffected, as they both take place outside of the windows which cater for the Rugby Nations Championship.
This international rugby schedule will remain unaffected.
February-March: Six Nations
July: Rugby Championship summer window
August-October: Rugby Championship
November: Rugby Championship autumn window and finals
Tournament Schedule and the Grand Final
Round 1- 4th July 2026
| Home Team | Away Team |
| Japan | Italy |
| New Zealand | France |
| Australia | Ireland |
| South Africa | England |
| Fiji | Wales |
| Argentina | Scotland |
Round 2- 11th July 2026
| Home Team | Away Team |
| Japan | Ireland |
| New Zealand | Italy |
| Australia | France |
| South Africa | Scotland |
| Fiji | England |
| Argentina | Wales |
Round 3- 18th July 2026
| Home Team | Away Team |
| Japan | France |
| New Zealand | Ireland |
| Australia | Italy |
| South Africa | Wales |
| Fiji | Scotland |
| Argentina | England |
Round 4- 6th-8th November
| Home Team | Away Team |
| France | Fiji |
| Ireland | Argentina |
| Italy | South Africa |
| Scotland | New Zealand |
| Wales | Japan |
| England | Australia |
Round 5- 13th-15th November
| Home Team | Away Team |
| France | South Africa |
| Ireland | Fiji |
| Italy | Argentina |
| Scotland | Australia |
| Wales | New Zealand |
| England | Japan |
Round 6- 21st November
| Home Team | Away Team |
| France | Argentina |
| Ireland | South Africa |
| Italy | Fiji |
| Scotland | Japan |
| Wales | Australia |
| England | New Zealand |
