{"id":556011,"date":"2026-07-18T12:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T12:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/556011\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T12:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T12:09:08","slug":"nations-championship-irelands-permutations-fixtures-and-final-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/556011\/","title":{"rendered":"Nations Championship: Ireland’s Permutations, Fixtures, And Final Hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland ended their Nations Championship summer down under with a 40-21 defeat to New Zealand<\/a> early on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

Andy Farrell’s troops could take some encouragement from their performance<\/a>, but a combination of the All Blacks’ firepower and some questionable decisions<\/a> ultimately resigned Ireland to defeat.<\/p>\n

\n Recommended\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the inaugural edition of the Nations Championship, a new endeavour by World Rugby to bring structure to the summer and autumn tours traditionally carried out by the world’s biggest teams.<\/p>\n

It’s all building towards the finals weekend in November, and we now have a clearer idea of Ireland’s path to the 1st place final.<\/p>\n

Here’s everything you need to know about Ireland’s Nations Championship permutations.<\/p>\n

Nations Championship standings<\/p>\n

Standings correct as of 12:00 on Saturday, July 18th.<\/p>\n

Northern Hemisphere standings<\/p>\n

Pos
\nTeam
\nPld
\nW
\nD
\nL
\nPF
\nPA
\nPD
\nPts<\/p>\n

1
\nFrance
\n3
\n2
\n0
\n1
\n116
\n75
\n+41
\n12<\/p>\n

2
\nIreland
\n3
\n2
\n0
\n1
\n90
\n91
\n-1
\n10<\/p>\n

3
\nScotland
\n2
\n1
\n0
\n1
\n75
\n80
\n-5
\n6<\/p>\n

4
\nEngland
\n2
\n1
\n0
\n1
\n94
\n53
\n+41
\n5<\/p>\n

5
\nWales
\n2
\n1
\n0
\n1
\n60
\n59
\n+1
\n5<\/p>\n

6
\nItaly
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n2
\n27
\n74
\n-74
\n0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Southern Hemisphere standings<\/p>\n

Pos
\nTeam
\nPld
\nW
\nD
\nL
\nPF
\nPA
\nPD
\nPts<\/p>\n

1
\nNew Zealand
\n3
\n3
\n0
\n0
\n121
\n70
\n+51
\n15<\/p>\n

2
\nSouth Africa
\n2
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n87
\n49
\n+38
\n10<\/p>\n

3
\nArgentina
\n2
\n1
\n0
\n1
\n73
\n68
\n+5
\n6<\/p>\n

4
\nJapan
\n3
\n1
\n0
\n2
\n62
\n88
\n-26
\n4<\/p>\n

5
\nAustralia
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n2
\n57
\n75
\n-18
\n3<\/p>\n

6
\nFiji
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n2
\n32
\n112
\n-80
\n0<\/p>\n

The standings are likely to change after the remainder of Saturday’s fixtures (Australia v Italy, Fiji v Scotland, South Africa v Wales, Argentina v England). We’ll keep this post updated as results filter in.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

What’s the tournament format?<\/p>\n

The Nations Championship comprises of two conferences of six teams. One of these is made up of the Six Nations teams, with the other comprising the four teams from the Rugby Championship, plus Japan and Fiji.<\/p>\n

The “Southern Hemisphere” series concludes on Saturday, and saw each team play three teams from the opposite conference, with the Six Nations teams away from home. In November, home advantage will be reversed, with the northern hemisphere teams at home for three games against the remaining southern hemisphere teams they did not play in the summer.<\/p>\n

Two separate tables are kept, and the two conference winners will play each other in the Nations Championship final<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When is the Nations Championship final?<\/p>\n

Finals will take place to decide each finishing position in the Nations Championship, with all games taking place at Twickenham at the end of November.<\/p>\n

The headline event is the Nations Championship final, which will take place on\u00a0Sunday, November 29th at 4:40pm<\/p>\n

Here’s the full schedule (all games taking place at Twickenham):<\/p>\n

Nations Championship final:\u00a0Sunday 29th November, 4:40pm
\n3rd place final:\u00a0Saturday 28th November, 4:40pm
\n5th place final:\u00a0Friday 27th November, 8:10pm
\n7th place final:\u00a0Sunday 29th November, 1:10pm
\n9th place final:\u00a0Saturday 28th November, 1:10pm
\n11th place final:\u00a0Friday 27th November, 4:40pm<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Can Ireland still reach the Nations Championship final?<\/p>\n

Ireland’s hopes of reaching the Nations Championship final are very much still alive, but they are likely to be overtaken in the table by several of their Six Nations counterparts before Saturday’s action is over.<\/p>\n

We’ll have a clearer idea of the exact permutations as the winter series progresses, but the equation is simple: if Ireland finish top of their Nations Championship group, they will play in the 1st place final on Sunday, November 29th.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ireland’s Nations Championship fixtures<\/p>\n

Ireland have three remaining games in the Nations Championship, all of which will be played at the Aviva Stadium.<\/p>\n

They have home advantage against Fiji, Argentina, and world champions South Africa in November, with the Springboks game already sold out.<\/p>\n

Friday November 6th –\u00a0Ireland v Argentina (8:10pm)
\nSaturday November 14th –\u00a0Ireland v Fiji (8:10pm)
\nSaturday November 21st –\u00a0Ireland v South Africa (4:40pm)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland ended their Nations Championship summer down under with a 40-21 defeat to New Zealand early on Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,235065,43],"class_list":["post-556011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-nations-championship","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}