{"id":370213,"date":"2026-01-14T23:10:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/370213\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T23:10:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:10:06","slug":"2026-nations-championship-fixtures-confirmed-england-handed-nightmare-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/370213\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Nations Championship fixtures confirmed: England handed nightmare start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The fixtures for the 2026 Nations Championship have been officially confirmed, and England have been dealt a daunting opening to their campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Fierce cross hemisphere rivalries will be put on the global stage when the Nations Championship debuts in July 2026. A landmark joint venture agreed between Six Nations Rugby and SANZAAR, to create the new biennial tournament, signals a watershed moment for rugby union, years in the making.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/channel\/AbYd2l05pp1bM_Ix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Join RUCK\u2019s Instagram broadcast channel <\/a>and get the latest rugby news straight to your phone.<\/p>\n<p>The Nations Championship creates a competitive tournament format, injecting jeopardy and context into every fixture, on the way to crowning a tournament Champion, and deciding the dominant Hemisphere in the sport that year.<\/p>\n<p>Ratified by World Rugby Council in 2023, the introduction of the Nations Championship is part of a broader package of reform to the global rugby calendars, which have been shaped by members from across the whole sport: unions, federations, clubs, leagues, tournament organisers, players and their associations, and World Rugby. <\/p>\n<p>The balance and alignment between domestic and international rugby as of 2026 gives clarity and certainty to support game wide growth, and the Nations Championship is a fundamental driver for this.<\/p>\n<p>In the Nations Championship, twelve of the strongest international rugby nations in the world, packed with the best players in the sport, will form two groups of six teams. <\/p>\n<p>The Six Nations teams represent the Northern Hemisphere, and will face the SANZAAR nations, plus invitational teams Japan and Fiji, who complete the line up representing the Southern Hemisphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Who will be competing in the Nations Championship:<\/p>\n<p>Representing the Northern Hemisphere:<\/p>\n<p>England\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>France<\/p>\n<p>Ireland\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Italy<\/p>\n<p>Scotland\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wales<\/p>\n<p>Representing the Southern Hemisphere:<\/p>\n<p>Argentina<\/p>\n<p>Australia<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>South Africa\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Japan<\/p>\n<p>Fiji<\/p>\n<p>2026 Nations Championship fixtures<\/p>\n<p>4 July<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand v France<\/p>\n<p>Japan v Italy<\/p>\n<p>South Africa v England<\/p>\n<p>Australia v Ireland<\/p>\n<p>Fiji v Wales<\/p>\n<p>Argentina v Scotland<\/p>\n<p>11 July<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand v Italy<\/p>\n<p>Japan v Ireland<\/p>\n<p>South Africa v Scotland<\/p>\n<p>Australia v France<\/p>\n<p>Fiji v England<\/p>\n<p>Argentina v Wales<\/p>\n<p>18 July<\/p>\n<p>Japan v France<\/p>\n<p>Australia v Italy<\/p>\n<p>South Africa v Wales<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand v Ireland<\/p>\n<p>Fiji v Scotland<\/p>\n<p>Argentina v England<\/p>\n<p>CONTINUES ON PAGE TWO<\/p>\n<p>Like this:<\/p>\n<p>Like Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fixtures for the 2026 Nations Championship have been officially confirmed, and England have been dealt a daunting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-370213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370213","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=370213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}