There is no Rugby Championship this year. Here is what replaced it

If you went looking for the Rugby Championship this year and could not find it, you are not going mad.

There isn't one. 2026 is the first year of the Nations Championship, and it has changed the shape of the whole international calendar.

What it is

Twelve teams. The Six Nations, plus New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, Fiji and Japan.

Here is the part that makes it different: every match is cross-hemisphere. North plays south, always. Each team plays six of them, three in July and three in November. There are two separate tables, one for each hemisphere, and at the end the team on top of each one meets in a final at Twickenham on Sunday 29 November.

So the traditional July tours and November internationals have not gone away. They have been turned into a competition that actually counts for something.

Where the All Blacks sit

Rounds one to three were played on 4, 11 and 18 July. After them:

Southern table

| # | Team | Pts | |---|---|---| | 1= | South Africa | 15 | | 1= | New Zealand | 15 | | 3 | Australia | 8 | | 4 | Argentina | 7 | | 5 | Japan | 4 | | 6 | Fiji | 0 |

Northern table

| # | Team | Pts | |---|---|---| | 1 | France | 12 | | 2 | Scotland | 11 | | 3 | England | 10 | | 4 | Ireland | 10 | | 5 | Wales | 5 | | 6 | Italy | 0 |

Three wins each for New Zealand and South Africa, and they are dead level. Which is a slightly delicious way to go into a four-Test series against each other, even though that series is a separate thing entirely.

So what is the South Africa tour, then?

Good question, and it trips a lot of people up.

The four Tests the All Blacks are playing in South Africa right now are not Nations Championship matches. They are a same-hemisphere series for the Freedom Cup, and this is the first time it has ever been played over four Tests.

Because the Nations Championship only schedules north against south, the July and August windows had a gap in them. Both hemispheres filled it with their own tours. That is why the All Blacks are in South Africa and Australia are in Argentina at the same time.

The All Blacks' November

All three November matches are away, and all three are against Six Nations sides:

| Date | Match | Venue | |---|---|---| | Sat 7 Nov, 2.10pm local | Scotland v New Zealand | Murrayfield | | Sat 14 Nov | Wales v New Zealand | Cardiff | | Sat 21 Nov | England v New Zealand | Twickenham |

Scotland, Wales, England, on consecutive weekends, in November, in their own back yards. Then, if the table falls the right way, back to Twickenham the following weekend for the final.

Scotland are second in the northern table, so the opener at Murrayfield is a genuinely big match and not a warm-up.

The one-line version

Every Test the All Blacks play in November now counts towards something with a trophy at the end of it. That has never been true before.

Finals weekend is 27 to 29 November at Twickenham, with the Championship final on the Sunday.