The Nations Championship: A New Era or a New Barrier for Emerging Nations?

Matthew Parke

On November 17th, World Rugby confirmed the preparation for the Nations Championship, a brand new competition for international rugby set to begin in 2026. The competition is designed to add competitiveness to the existing summer and autumn test matches by pitting the northern and southern hemispheres against each other.

The competition will be comprised of a European Conference consisting of the Six Nations teams (England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Wales and Italy) representing the northern hemisphere and a SANZAAR and Pacific Conference comprised of South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina plus two invitational teams, namely Japan and Fiji, representing the southern hemisphere.

Each team will play the Six Nations sides in their opposite conference, with the grand final being held at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, between the first-placed nations from the two conferences to crown the champion at the end of November. The tournament is scheduled to take place in even years so as not to clash with either the World Cup or the British and Irish Lions Tour.

The question is, is this the revolutionary new step forward for international rugby? Pitting the strongest nations together in a competitive format will no doubt be a spectacle that will boost the relevance of fixtures around summer and autumn to increase engagement in rugby year-round. It will create the drama and intensity that can only come with international sport, especially considering that men’s international rugby is very healthy. Test matches are hotly contested, with the top teams feasibly all able to beat each other on a given day. The competitive fixtures and travel schedules will likely lead to more talent being given a chance for their national teams. This will benefit the growth of the game and allow new stars to emerge.It is also paramount to consider the financial benefits of this tournament, particularly in a period that has seen rugby teams fall under financial hardship; the Premiership has already lost four teams, and the Welsh Rugby Union is also considering cutting two Welsh franchises. The tournament offers commercial opportunities for each union competing. Competition will attract larger crowds and TV revenue. Japan and Fiji, as smaller rugby nations, will also benefit, as competing with stronger nations is likely to draw eyes and revenue towards their respective unions. The boost in intrigue in the sport as a whole allows for financial opportunities that could extend to club level.

Despite these benefits, the Nations Championship has come under heavy criticism over its elitist nature and locking other developing nations out of competing at top-tier level rugby. The fixtures are fixed, meaning the 12 teams in the Nations Championship will play the same teams each year. Furthermore, these 12 teams were not selected based on World Rugby’s rankings. This will come as a most of disappointment to Georgia, who, at the time of writing, are currently ranked higher than both Wales and Japan. Georgia have also recently defeated two Six Nations-calibre teams, albeit the currently weakest sides, Italy and Wales, but have more than marked themselves as worthy of playing at the highest level of international rugby.

Georgia have instead been added to the second tier of this competition, the Nations Cup, along with 11 other teams that have qualified for the 2027 Rugby World Cup. These nations are Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Tonga, Uruguay, USA, Zimbabwe, and now Samoa, who won the Final Qualification Tournament (FQT) on the 18th November.

In Rugby World Cup and Lions Tour years, cross-competition matches will take place between the Nations Championship and the Nations Cup, but these matches are not competitive. There will also be no promotion or relegation between the two competitions until at least 2030. This risks stunting the growth of tier-two nations, who may have to wait for perhaps five years before being exposed to higher-level competition. The USA, for example, are hosting the 2031 RWC, but may not build the same level of support that they could if they were competing with top-tier nations.

Moreover, there is no mention of whether teams outside this competition will be able to compete later on down the line. One of the most exciting stories to come out of 2027 RWC qualification was the campaign of Belgium. They just narrowly missed out on qualification this year in a heartbreaking 13–13 draw with Samoa on the final day of the FQT. Having beaten Namibia and Brazil, if Belgium won against Samoa they would have qualified for a World Cup for the first time in their history. Namibia is another developing nation, who had managed to qualify for every World Cup from 1999 to 2023, but they have been left out of this competition for failing to qualify this year, after being upset in the 2025 Rugby Africa Cup Final by Zimbabwe in a 30–28 game and then failing to win the FQT. By depriving these teams of a higher standard of competition, it risks inhibiting both their progress as developing nations and the growth of global rugby as a whole.

So whilst the Nations Championship will definitely increase engagement and add more weight to the summer and autumn fixtures, World Rugby must look at new perspectives and ideas to prevent the stunting of budding nations, to not only stimulate their growth and performance but cultivate rugby as a sport to a wider global audience.

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