Nations Championship heads for its November finish, with Ireland opening in Dublin
Ireland open the final stretch of the Nations Championship on Friday night in Dublin, when they meet Argentina. The new competition is heading towards a finish at Twickenham later this month, and the November games will decide who takes part.
The Nations Championship is a new 12-team tournament, and it started in July 2026. The teams are split into a Northern Hemisphere group and a Southern Hemisphere group. Each side plays across six rounds, and the fixtures are spread over two blocks, one in July and one in November. World Rugby first suggested the idea in 2018. Its aim was to give more purpose to the international calendar, the run of "test" matches (full internationals between national teams) that can otherwise feel like a series of one-off games.
Across three November weekends, England, Scotland and Wales each play Australia, Japan and New Zealand. France, Ireland and Italy each face Argentina, Fiji and South Africa. Some of the travel has been unusual. Ireland and Japan met in Newcastle, New South Wales, in July, after Japan agreed to stage their home match in Australia. That saved Ireland an extra trip after a game against the Wallabies, Australia's national team. Fiji's home games this year were in Cardiff, Liverpool and Murrayfield in Edinburgh.
The finale is a long weekend at Twickenham, with six games in three days from 28 to 30 November. The northern sixth-placed team plays the southern sixth-placed team, which gives the bottom sides a chance to finish strongly. The top two teams in the overall standings then compete for the Hemisphere Shield, a trophy awarded to the winner of a Ryder Cup-style contest between the two sides of the world's divide.
The money is changing too. ITV agreed in February to pay £80m a year for exclusive rights to every game in the competition, according to The Guardian. In June, the broadcaster shelved plans for in-game adverts, the short commercial breaks that can appear during play, after brands chose to spend heavily on the Rugby World Cup instead.
Rugby's history also turned up in the news this week. Nigel Wray paid £180,000 for the jersey worn by All Blacks captain Dave Gallaher in 1905, when Wales beat New Zealand 3-0. It was the All Blacks' only defeat in 35 games on their 1905 autumn tour of Europe, and the shirt sold for a record price for a piece of rugby memorabilia.
For newcomers, the simplest way to follow the Nations Championship is to think of it as a league table with a final weekend attached. Every November result nudges a team up or down the table, and the Twickenham weekend is where the placings are settled. Ireland's opener on Friday is the first of those results to watch.
