World Rugby’s long-awaited Nations Championship kicks off in the new year, and — in the July and November international windows — it will deliver what Test rugby has lacked for decades, which is structure, purpose, meaning, consequence, and a champion. This because, finally, there’ll be league points awarded to the winner of those Test matches. For too long, the North has sent weakened teams to the South for the July Tests and, on occasion, the South has not always sent their best up North for the November internationals.
Now, like international Test cricket’s World Championship table, there’s a league to determine a winner every second year. The Boks, in 2026, will host England at Ellis Park on July 4 and also entertain Scotland and Wales. Their November Tests are against Italy, France, and Ireland.
The way the league works is that there are five teams from the Southern Hemisphere, which are the four Rugby Championship teams and Fiji, with Japan playing in the group to complete the six-team league. The Northern Hemisphere league is made up of the Six Nations teams. Each team gets points on wins, and when the six rounds are completed, three at home and three away, the league winners of the north and south are confirmed to meet in a Grand Final at the Allianz Stadium at Twickenham in the final weekend of November, 2026.
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The “Finals weekend” will comprise sixth and fifth playing off against each other, north v south, on the Friday; fourth and third, north v south, on the Saturday and Sunday’s big dance being second v second and one playing one to determine the first Nations Championship winners. The tournament will be held every second year and never on World Cup years. England, currently ranked third in the world, are unbeaten in 11 Tests, and the last time they played in South Africa was in 2018, where they lost the opening two Tests at Ellis Park in Johannesburg and in Bloemfontein, and won the final Test in Cape Town, with the series already lost.
Scotland was last in South Africa in 2014, where they also lost, and Wales, in 2022, lost the series 2-1 but won for the first time in South Africa, beating the Boks in Bloemfontein 13-12. The Tests against England are followed by Scotland at Loftus and Wales in Durban. The Italian Test venue has yet to be confirmed, and France’s Federation may also take the Boks down to Marseilles, instead of the traditional Stade de France in Paris.
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