The Nations Championship returns this weekend as rugby union's inaugural international competition reaches its autumn finale. After the first half of fixtures held over the summer, the tournament concludes over the coming weeks ahead of a series of finals that all take place at Twickenham.
Pressure is back on England head coach Steve Borthwick just a year out from the World Cup, despite the side bouncing back from a historically poor Six Nations and a 45-21 defeat by South Africa with back-to-back wins over Fiji and Argentina.
What is the Nations Championship?
The Nations Championship is a new international rugby union competition first announced in 2023. It began in 2026 after much discussion over the format and will be held biennially, with the next edition in 2028.
It replaces the old summer tours, when Northern Hemisphere teams travelled south for multi-Test series, and the autumn internationals, when Southern Hemisphere nations came north to play several games across November. The idea is to link those international windows and make the summer more impactful, bringing in an overarching competition that makes every match important.
There is also the new World Rugby Nations Cup, which operates as the second tier of the Nations Championship. It involves Georgia, Hong Kong, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Zimbabwe, Canada, Chile, Samoa, Tonga, USA and Uruguay, split into 'Europe, Africa and Asia' and 'Americas and Pacific' pools. However, there will be no promotion or relegation during the first two editions, a decision that has attracted criticism.
How does the Nations Championship work?
The Nations Championship pits the Six Nations teams - England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy - against South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Japan and Fiji. There are two six-team pools, one of Northern Hemisphere teams and one of Southern Hemisphere nations plus Japan.
Countries do not play against teams in their own pool; instead they contest one game against each nation from the corresponding group. Those round-robin fixtures take place across six matchdays - three in the summer and three in the autumn. The Southern Hemisphere teams and Japan were at home in the summer before travelling north.
All except Fiji, whose home games were held in the UK because their national stadium is not considered up to the required standard for regular Test matches, with commercial considerations also a factor. Japan also played Ireland in Australia.
Once the six matchdays are complete, a finals series takes place across three days in late November, with every match at Twickenham in 2026. The teams that finished in the same position in each pool go head to head, culminating in the overall final between the two nations that finished first in their pools, with the winners lifting the trophy.
Where to watch every game
ITV has bought the rights for the first two editions of the Nations Championship in 2026 and 2028, showing every match live and free-to-air across ITV1 and ITV4. ITV has paused the in-game adverts that proved divisive during the Six Nations earlier this year, though that is only expected to be a temporary measure.
