The Nations Championship begins this weekend with a highly anticipated opening match between New Zealand and France. The new global competition brings together teams from the Six Nations and the Rugby Championship, along with Fiji and Japan. Fixtures are split into summer and autumn blocks, culminating in a finals weekend at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.
Match Details
The clash takes place on Saturday, July 4, at One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch, with kick-off at 8:10am BST. The match is being broadcast live and free on ITV1, with coverage starting at 7:30am. Viewers can also stream the game via the ITVX app, requiring a valid TV licence and account.
Team Line-ups
New Zealand: 15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Quinn Tupaea, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Caleb Clarke, 10 Ruben Love, 9 Cam Roigard, 8 Ardie Savea (c), 7 Luke Jacobson, 6 Peter Lakai, 5 Sam Darry, 4 Josh Lord, 3 Fletcher Newell, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot. Replacements: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Xavier Numia, 18 Tyrel Lomax, 19 Patrick Tuipulotu, 20 Wallace Sititi, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Billy Proctor, 23 Fehi Fineanganofo.
France: 15 Max Spring, 14 Damian Penaud, 13 Fabien Brau-Boirie, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Théo Attissogbé, 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 9 Maxime Lucu (c), 8 Marko Gazzotti, 7 Oscar Jégou, 6 Pierre Bochaton, 5 Tom Staniforth, 4 Hugo Auradou, 3 Demba Bamba, 2 Maxime Lamothe, 1 Jefferson Poirot. Replacements: 16 Barnabé Massa, 17 Reda Wardi, 18 Régis Montagne, 19 Mickaël Guillard, 20 Killian Tixeront, 21 Nolan Le Garrec, 22 Antoine Hastoy, 23 Nicolas Depoortere.
Officials
Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU). Assistant referees: Christophe Ridley (RFU) and Katsuki Furuse (JRFU). TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU). FPRO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU).
