The inaugural edition of a new global rugby competition created by World Rugby: 12 top-tier teams split into two pools โ Northern Hemisphere v Southern Hemisphere โ six rounds spread from July to November 2026, and a landmark finals weekend at Twickenham on 27, 28 and 29 November 2026.
The Nations Championship is the new flagship global rugby competition created by World Rugby. Officially announced and launched on 17 November 2025, it is designed to give international rugby a clearer structure between Rugby World Cups, by delivering regular, high-stakes matches between the leading nations of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
The 2026 edition is the very first. It launches a biennial cycle: the competition will run every two years (2026, 2028, 2030 and so on), alternating with the annual Guinness Six Nations and the Rugby World Cup (every four years). This regularity gives supporters a guaranteed showpiece every year and allows the leading nations to play more meaningful Test matches at the top of the world game.
The international rugby calendar had long been unbalanced: The Rugby Championship (the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the Six Nations) pitted the four SANZAAR nations (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina) against each other, while the Six Nations was focused on Europe. North-South meetings were largely limited to the July and November Test windows or to the Rugby World Cup โ relatively rare and often without serious competitive stakes.
The Nations Championship answers that frustration by turning the July and November international windows into a fully structured competition with silverware at stake. For the first time, every North-South Test match will count directly towards a single league table, all culminating in a spectacular finals weekend at Twickenham.
Opening match: 4 July 2026 (first round of fixtures in the Southern Hemisphere)
Rounds 1-3: July 2026 (played in the Southern Hemisphere)
Rounds 4-6: November 2026 (played in the Northern Hemisphere)
Finals weekend: Friday 27, Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 November 2026 at Allianz Stadium (Twickenham), London
The Nations Championship format is deliberately modern, designed to put North-South contests centre stage. Here is how it works:
The 12 participating nations are divided into two fixed pools based on geography:
Each team from the Northern Pool faces each of the six Southern Pool sides โ an inter-pool round-robin โ for 6 matches per team in the league stage. Fixtures are spread across two international windows:
In total: 30 matches in the league stage across four months.
At the end of the six rounds, the standings in each pool determine the pairings for the finals weekend. Six placement matches are played across the weekend of 27-29 November 2026 at Allianz Stadium (Twickenham) in London, in a new format where each ranking faces its counterpart from the other pool: North 1 v South 1 (the final), North 2 v South 2, North 3 v South 3, and so on.
The six placement matches are scheduled as follows (all times UK / GMT):
โข Friday 27 November 2026, 15:40 GMT โ North 6 v South 6 (final placement match)
โข Friday 27 November 2026, 19:10 GMT โ North 3 v South 3
โข Saturday 28 November 2026, 12:10 GMT โ North 5 v South 5
โข Saturday 28 November 2026, 15:40 GMT โ North 2 v South 2
โข Sunday 29 November 2026, 12:10 GMT โ North 4 v South 4
โข Sunday 29 November 2026, 15:40 GMT โ North 1 v South 1 (FINAL) ๐
The six teams of the Guinness Six Nations:
The four SANZAAR nations plus two invited teams:
A selection of confirmed fixtures for the summer 2026 window (rounds 1-3). The complete schedule will be released progressively by World Rugby.
Not all 30 league-stage matches (rounds 1 to 6) have been confirmed at the time of publication. Sign up via the form at the bottom of the page to receive updates as soon as World Rugby publishes the complete fixture list.
They are two distinct competitions, both launched in 2026 by World Rugby:
โข The Nations Championship (this page) is the top tier: 12 teams at the summit of world rugby (Northern Pool = the Six Nations + Southern Pool = SANZAAR + Fiji + Japan). It is the competition that features England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland โ alongside France and Italy โ and culminates in the final at Twickenham.
โข The Nations Cup is the second tier, designed for nations qualified for Rugby World Cup 2027 but outside the world's top 12 (Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Uruguay, Chile and others).
Six matches in the league stage (3 on tour in July and 3 at home in November) plus one finals-weekend match (based on standings). That makes seven matches in total in this new competition. The same applies to Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy.
The finals weekend takes place on 27, 28 and 29 November 2026 at Allianz Stadium (Twickenham) in London. The grand final between North 1 and South 1 is scheduled for Sunday 29 November 2026 at 15:40 GMT.
The Nations Championship is biennial: the next edition after 2026 will be in 2028, then 2030, and so on. It alternates with the annual Six Nations and the four-yearly Rugby World Cup.
Fiji and Japan were selected as the invited teams for the Southern Pool to bring it to six sides (since SANZAAR only counts four nations). Fiji confirmed their status as a top-tier nation at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and Japan are one of Asia's strongest rugby nations. These selections create a balanced number of teams across the two pools.