What new international rugby union tournament is scheduled to begin in 2026?

The international rugby union scene is set to welcome a significant new tournament in 2026: the World Rugby Nations Championship. This biennial competition aims to revolutionize the global rugby calendar by creating a unified and highly competitive structure for the sport's top nations. It will debut in July 2026 and take place in even-numbered years, strategically avoiding conflicts with the Rugby World Cup and British & Irish Lions tours.

The inaugural Nations Championship will feature twelve elite men's teams, comprising the Six Nations participants from Europe (England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales) and the Rugby Championship nations from the Southern Hemisphere (Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa), alongside invited teams Fiji and Japan. These teams will be divided into two geographical pools: a European conference and a "Rest of the World" conference. Throughout the July and November international windows, each team will play all six teams from the opposing pool, with three matches at home and three away.

Following these six rounds of cross-hemisphere fixtures, the tournament will culminate in a finals weekend in London. Here, teams will compete against their equivalently ranked counterparts from the opposite pool to determine the final standings, with the top-ranked teams playing for the overall Nations Championship title. This format is designed to intensify rivalries and ensure that every match carries significant weight, offering fans a thrilling new global spectacle. A separate, concurrent World Rugby Nations Cup will also run for other international teams, with promotion and relegation between the two competitions intended to begin in 2030.