{"id":346297,"date":"2026-01-01T11:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T11:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/346297\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T11:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T11:49:09","slug":"2026-six-nations-cut-as-mid-week-match-introduced-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/346297\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Six Nations cut as mid-week match introduced for first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wales will play Ireland in Dublin’s first Friday night Six Nations match in 2026, while France hosts the tournament’s first Thursday fixture, as the championship is cut by a week<\/p>\n

15:29, 31 Dec 2025Updated 15:30, 31 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

\"WalesWales play England in their opening match of the Six Nations(Image: PA Wire)<\/p>\n

2026 is nearly upon us and the latest Six Nations is just around the corner. This year’s tournament will look different from previous incarnations, with the length of the competition cut by a week and the first ever Thursday night match held in a break from tradition.<\/p>\n

Wales will also play a Friday night match in Dublin for the first time next year. Historically, only France and Wales have hosted Friday night matches in the Six Nations<\/a> since their introduction in 2009. However, with broadcasters seemingly favouring these slots, this year’s tournament will see Ireland hosting their inaugural Friday night match in their round four face-off with Wales at the Aviva Stadium.<\/p>\n

France will host the tournament’s first-ever Thursday night match, which will commence with an 8.10pm showdown between the French and Ireland on Thursday, February 5. This scheduling is to avoid a clash with the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

Wales enter the Six Nations looking to avoid a third consecutive wooden spoon and they are actually not favourites to finish bottom of the pile this time around. Italy are tipped to come last at 10\/11 with bookmakers, while Wales are 5\/4.<\/p>\n

France are favourites for the title at 11\/13, with England backed to finish second. Wales are as long as 250\/1 to win the competition.<\/p>\n

The tournament will have just one fallow week, instead of the usual two, as part of rugby’s new global calendar that will see the Nations Championship begin in the summer.<\/p>\n

Wales’ tournament kicks off with a high-stakes opener as they travel to Twickenham to challenge England on Saturday, February 7 – following a record 68-14 defeat to their closest rivals in this year’s tournament.<\/p>\n

The opening weekend’s other fixture sees Italy welcoming Scotland to Rome.<\/p>\n

Wales will face off against France in Cardiff<\/a> on the second weekend, with a Sunday fixture, before welcoming Scotland to the Principality Stadium the subsequent weekend. The upcoming tournament has been shortened by a week, featuring only one rest weekend and the first three rounds occurring on consecutive weekends.<\/p>\n

Following the lone break, Wales will then journey to Dublin for a Friday night showdown with Ireland.<\/p>\n

Ireland has previously hosted Friday night matches, having played New Zealand and Argentina at the Aviva Stadium in the autumn.<\/p>\n

Super Saturday on March 14 sees Wales entertaining Italy in what will likely be a wooden spoon decider, nestled between Ireland’s match with Scotland and England’s voyage to France.<\/p>\n

Here are the full Six Nations 2026 fixtures. All kick-off times are GMT.<\/p>\n

Round 1<\/p>\n

France v Ireland – Thursday 5 February – 8.10pm.<\/p>\n

Italy v Scotland – Saturday 7 February – 2.10pm.<\/p>\n

England v Wales – Saturday 7 February – 4.40pm.<\/p>\n

Round 2<\/p>\n

Ireland v Italy – Saturday 14 February – 2.10pm.<\/p>\n

Scotland v England – Saturday 14 February – 4.40pm.<\/p>\n

Wales v France – Sunday 15 February – 3.10pm.<\/p>\n

Round 3<\/p>\n

England v Ireland – Saturday 21 February – 2.10pm.<\/p>\n

Wales v Scotland – Saturday 21 February – 4.40pm.<\/p>\n

France v Italy – Sunday 22 February – 3.10pm.<\/p>\n

Round 4<\/p>\n

Ireland v Wales – Friday 6 March – 8.10pm.<\/p>\n

Scotland v France – Saturday 7 March – 2.10pm.<\/p>\n

Italy v England – Saturday 7 March – 4.40pm.<\/p>\n

Round 5<\/p>\n

Ireland v Scotland – Saturday 14 March – 2.10pm.<\/p>\n

Wales v Italy – Saturday 14 March – 4.40pm.<\/p>\n

France v England – Saturday 14 March – 8.10pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales will play Ireland in Dublin’s first Friday night Six Nations match in 2026, while France hosts the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,43326,101,56,54,55,9015],"class_list":["post-346297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-six-nations","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales-rugby-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}