Nations Championship
The Nations Championship is a planned biennial international men's rugby union competition, which is scheduled to take place in the mid-year and end-of-year international windows in even-numbered years, with the inaugural edition beginning in 2026.
Format
The competition will consist of twelve teams, involving the current Six Nations and SANZAAR unions, in addition to two invited unions, Fiji and Japan. The competition will be held in even-numbered years, as these are the years when there is no British & Irish Lions tour or Rugby World Cup, both of which are of prestige and commercial importance to the sport.The format of the competition will include a "European Conference", consisting of the Six Nations unions, and a "SANZAAR and Pacific Conference" comprising the SANZAAR nations, in addition to the two invited unions. Each team will play the six nations in their opposing conference across the July and November test windows, with a grand final to be played at the end of the November window between the first-placed teams in each conference to decide the tournament champion.
World Rugby Nations Cup
A second competition, run by World Rugby, will take place concurrently and will consist of twelve further teams, with promotion and relegation between the divisions commencing from the start of the third edition in 2030.Teams
With no promotion and relegation in the first two editions, the following teams will contest both the inaugural tournament and the second edition.Criticism
The creation of the Nations Championship has received criticism for 'ring-fencing' smaller nations outside elite competition and narrowing their opportunities to play against top nations. It has also been criticised for potentially devaluing the Rugby World Cup. World Rugby's Chief Executive Alan Gilpin has defended against this criticism by stating “the suggestions that this just makes the rich richer are misplaced. This creates a better landscape” whilst adding that there will be “50% guaranteed more crossover fixtures” in non-tournament years.Broadcasting rights
The following is the list of confirmed broadcast partners:| Territory | Rights holder | |
 Australiahlist|Nine|Stan Sport |