{"id":685629,"date":"2026-07-11T07:15:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T07:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/685629\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T07:15:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T07:15:23","slug":"nations-championship-predictions-team-news-kick-off-times-how-to-watch-and-referee-appointments-for-round-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/685629\/","title":{"rendered":"Nations Championship: Predictions, team news, kick-off times, how to watch and referee appointments for Round Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Round Two of the inaugural Nations Championship is fast approaching and we bring you all the team news, match details and how to watch information ahead of kick-off.<\/p>\n

The action kicks off on Saturday with the All Blacks facing Japan before four games are sandwiched in between the final match of a busy day, Argentina against Wales.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s everything you need ahead of the Nations Championship<\/a> action.<\/p>\n

New Zealand v Italy<\/p>\n

Prediction: New Zealand by 30<\/p>\n

New Zealand: 15\u202fDamian McKenzie, 14\u202fWill Jordan, 13\u202fBilly Proctor, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11\u202fLeroy Carter, 10\u202fRuben Love, 9\u202fCam Roigard, 8\u202fArdie Savea (c), 7\u202fLuke Jacobson, 6\u202fWallace Sititi, 5 Tupou Vaa\u2019i, 4\u202fSam Darry, 3\u202fTyrel Lomax, 2 Codie Taylor, 1\u202fEthan de Groot
Replacements: 16\u202fSamisoni Taukei\u2019aho, 17\u202fGeorge Bower, 18 Pasilio Tosi, 19\u202fJosh Lord, 20\u202fAnton Segner, 21\u202fCortez Ratima, 22\u202fAnton Lienert-Brown, 23\u202fJosh Moorby<\/p>\n

Italy: 15 Tommaso Allan, 14 Malik Faissal, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Louis Lynagh, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 6 Ross Vintcent, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Niccol\u00f2 Cannone, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 1 Danilo Fischetti
Replacements: 16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Muhamed Hasa, 19 Giulio Marini, 20 Federico Ruzza, 21 Riccardo Favretto, 22 Alessandro Garbisi, 23 Leonardo Marin<\/p>\n

Date: Saturday, 11 July, 2026
Venue: Hnry Stadium, Wellington
Kick-off: 17:10 (local), 06:10 (UK), 07:10 (France), 07:10 (South Africa), 15:10 (AEST), 17:10 (New Zealand), 02:10 (Argentina), 14:10 (JST), 01:10 (EDT)
Referee: Luc Ramos (FFR)
Assistant Referees: Nic Berry (RA), Luke Pearce (RFU)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)
FPRO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU)
Broadcasters: ITV (United Kingdom), TF1 (France), Virgin Media Television (Republic of Ireland), Sky Italia (Italy), Wowow (Japan), Sky Sport (New Zealand), Nine Network \/ Stan Sport (Australia), SuperSport (South Africa)<\/p>\n

Australia v France<\/p>\n

Prediction: France by 10<\/p>\n

Australia: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Max Jorgensen, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 10 Declan Meredith, 9 Ryan Lonergan, 8 Harry Wilson (c), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Josh Canham, 4 Jeremy Williams, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 Josh Nasser, 1 Angus Bell
Replacements: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 James Slipper, 18 Taniela Tupou, 19 Lachlan Shaw, 20 Nick Champion de Crespigny, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Jock Campbell, 23 Filipo Daugunu<\/p>\n

France: 15 Matthieu Jalibert, 14 Th\u00e9o Attissogbe, 13 Fabien Brau-Boirie, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Maxime Lucu (c), 8 Marko Gazzotti, 7 Oscar J\u00e9gou, 6 Lenni Nouchi, 5 Emmanuel Meafou, 4 Florian Verhaeghe, 3 Demba Bamba, 2 Peato Mauvaka, 1 Moses Alo-Emile
Replacements: 16 Maxime Lamothe, 17 Jefferson Poirot, 18 Tevita Tatafu, 19 Hugo Auradou, 20 Tom Staniforth, 21 Killian Tixeront, 22 Nolann Le Garrec, 23 Kalvin Gourgues<\/p>\n

Date: Saturday, 11 July, 2026
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Kick-off: 17:40 (local Brisbane), 08:40 (UK), 09:40 (France), 09:40 (South Africa), 17:40 (AEST), 19:40 (New Zealand), 04:40 (Argentina), 16:40 (JST), 03:40 (EDT)
Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)
Assistant Referees: Christophe Ridley (RFU) and Katsuki Furuse (JRFU)
TMO: Andrew Jackson (RFU)
FPRO: Glenn Newman (NZR)
Broadcasters: ITV (United Kingdom), TF1 (France), Virgin Media Television (Republic of Ireland), Sky Italia (Italy), Wowow (Japan), Sky Sport (New Zealand), Nine Network \/ Stan Sport (Australia), SuperSport (South Africa)<\/p>\n

Wallabies team: Fly-half crisis worsens as Joe Schmidt hands Brumbies ace the reins against France<\/a><\/p>\n

Japan v Ireland<\/p>\n

Prediction: Ireland by 12<\/p>\n

Japan: 15 Takuro Matsunaga, 14 Kazuma Ueda, 13 Dylan Riley, 12 Yuya Hirosi, 11 Taira Main, 10 Ryunosuke Ito, 9 Naoto Saito, 8 Jack Cornelson, 7 Kanji Shimokawa, 6 Ben Gunter, 5 Warner Dearns (c), 4 Harry Hockings, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi, 2 Mamoru Harada, 1 Takato Okabe
Replacements: 16 Hayate Era, 17 Sojiro Otsuka, 18 Keijiro Tamefusa, 19 Michael Stolbert, 20 Michael Leitch, 21 Tiennan Costley, 22 Itsuki Kamimura, 23 Sam Greene<\/p>\n

Ireland: 15 Jamie Osborne, 14 Jimmy O\u2019Brien, 13 Robbie Henshaw, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Ciaran Frawley, 9 Craig Casey, 8 Sean Jansen, 7 Nick Timoney, 6 Jack Conan, 5 James Ryan, 4 Tadhg Beirne (c), 3 Thomas Clarkson, 2 R\u00f3nan Kelleher, 1 Tom O\u2019Toole
Replacements: 16 Tom Stewart, 17 Billy Bohan, 18 Sam Illo, 19 Cormac Izuchukwu, 20 Bryn Ward, 21 Nathan Doak, 22 Harry Byrne, 23 Bundee Aki<\/p>\n

Date: Saturday, 11 July, 2026
Venue: McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle, Australia
Kick-off: 20:10 (local Newcastle), 11:10 (UK), 12:10 (France), 12:10 (South Africa), 20:10 (AEST), 22:10 (New Zealand), 07:10 (Argentina), 19:10 (JST), 06:10 (EDT)
Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)
Assistant Referees: Ben O\u2019Keeffe (NZR) and Morn\u00e9 Ferreira (SARU)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)
FPRO: Ian Tempest (RFU)
Broadcasters: ITV (United Kingdom), TF1 (France), Virgin Media Television (Republic of Ireland), Sky Italia (Italy), Wowow (Japan), Sky Sport (New Zealand), Nine Network \/ Stan Sport (Australia), SuperSport (South Africa)<\/p>\n

Fiji v England<\/p>\n

Prediction: England by 18<\/p>\n

Fiji: 15 Salesi Rayasi, 14 Vuate Karawalevu, 13 Kalaveti Ravouvou, 12 Josua Tuisova, 11 Juta Wainiqolo, 10 Caleb Muntz, 9 Simione Kuruvoli, 8 Levani Botia, 7 Lekima Tagitagivalu, 6 Peceli Yato, 5 Isoa Nasilasila, 4 Tevita Ratuva, 3 Mesake Doge, 2 Tevita Ikanivere (c), 1 Eroni Mawi
Replacements: 16 Sam Matavesi, 17 Livai Natave, 18 Peni Ravai, 19 Temo Mayanavanua, 20 Elia Canakaivata, 21 Pita Gus Sowakula, 22 Frank Lomani, 23 Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula<\/p>\n

England: 15 Marcus Smith, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Guy Pepper, 6 Ollie Chessum, 5 George Martin, 4 Alex Coles, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Jamie George, 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 18 George Kloska, 19 Tom Curry, 20 Henry Pollock, 21 Alex Mitchell, 22 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 23 Noah Caluori<\/p>\n

Date: Saturday, 11 July, 2026
Venue: Hill Dickinson Stadium, Liverpool, England
Kick-off: 14:10 (local), 14:10 (UK), 15:10 (France), 15:10 (South Africa), 23:10 (AEST), 01:10 (12 July, New Zealand), 10:10 (Argentina), 22:10 (JST), 09:10 (EDT)
Referee: Hollie Davidson (SRU)
Assistant Referees: Eoghan Cross (IRFU), Sam Grove-White (SRU)
TMO: Mike Adamson (SRU)
FPRO: Tual Trainini (FFR)
Broadcasters: ITV (United Kingdom), TF1 (France), Virgin Media Television (Republic of Ireland), Sky Italia (Italy), Wowow (Japan), Sky Sport (New Zealand), Nine Network \/ Stan Sport (Australia), SuperSport (South Africa)<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

South Africa v Scotland<\/p>\n

Prediction: South Africa by 12<\/p>\n

South Africa: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Canan Moodie, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit (c), 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Cobus Wiese, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Boan Venter
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu, 18 Zach Porthen, 19 Ben-Jason Dixon, 20 Vincent Tshituka, 21 Elrigh Louw, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Quan Horn<\/p>\n

Scotland: 15 Kyle Rowe, 14 Kyle Steyn, 13 Rory Hutchinson, 12 Sione Tuipulotu (c), 11 Jamie Dobie, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben White, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 Rory Darge, 6 Matt Fagerson, 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Gregor Brown, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman
Replacements: 16 Gregor Hiddleston, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Alex Samuel, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 Magnus Bradbury, 22 Tom Jordan, 23 Stafford McDowall<\/p>\n

Date: Saturday, 11 July, 2026
Venue: Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Kick-off: 17:40 (local), 16:40 (UK), 17:40 (France), 17:40 (South Africa), 01:40 (12 July, AEST), 03:40 (12 July, New Zealand), 12:40 (Argentina), 00:40 (12 July, JST), 11:40 (EDT)
Referee: Pierre Brousset (FFR)
Assistant Referees: James Doleman (NZR), Andrew Brace (IRFU)
TMO: Richard Kelly (NZR)
FPRO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)
Broadcasters: ITV (United Kingdom), TF1 (France), Virgin Media Television (Republic of Ireland), Sky Italia (Italy), Wowow (Japan), Sky Sport (New Zealand), Nine Network \/ Stan Sport (Australia), SuperSport (South Africa)<\/p>\n

Argentina v Wales<\/p>\n

Prediction: Argentina by 10<\/p>\n

Argentina: 15 Santiago Carreras, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Justo Piccardo, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Tomas Albornoz, 9 Gonzalo Garcia, 8 Joaquin Oviedo, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Santiago Grondona, 5 Matias Alemanno, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Tomas Rapetti, 2 Julian Montoya (captain), 1 Boris Wenger
Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Francisco Coria Marchetti, 19 Franco Molina, 20 Pablo Matera, 21 Simon Benitez Cruz, 22 Matias Moroni, 23 Ignacio Mendy<\/p>\n

Wales: 15 Blair Murray, 14 Ellis Mee, 13 Eddie James, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Sam Costelow, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Jac Morgan, 6 James Botham, 5 Adam Beard, 4 Ben Carter, 3 Dillon Lewis, 2 Dewi Lake (c), 1 Rhys Carre
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Ben Warren, 19 Teddy Williams, 20 Kane James, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Max Llewellyn, 23 Louis Rees-Zammit<\/p>\n

Date: Saturday, 11 July, 2026
Venue: Estadio San Juan de Bicentenario, San Juan
Kick-off: 16:10 (local), 20:10 (UK), 21:10 (France), 21:10 (South Africa), 15:10 (EDT), 5:10 (12 July, AEST), 16:10 (JST), 4:10 (July 12, JST)
Referee: Paul Williams (NZR)
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (RA), Nika Amashukeli (GRU)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (FFR)
FPRO: Brett Cronan (RA)
Broadcasters: ITV\/S4C (United Kingdom), TF1 (France), Virgin Media Television (Republic of Ireland), Sky Italia (Italy), Wowow (Japan), Sky Sport (New Zealand), Nine Network\/Stan Sport (Australia), SuperSport (South Africa)<\/p>\n

READ MORE: England team v Fiji: Tommy Freeman experiment shelved as Benhard Janse van Rensburg one of three set for debut<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Round Two of the inaugural Nations Championship is fast approaching and we bring you all the team news,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[14632,428,309,10363,819,348,3482,2274,479,386,620,50,5903,200,4247,101,56,54,55,1220],"class_list":["post-685629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-argentina","tag-australia","tag-england","tag-fiji","tag-france","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-ireland","tag-italy","tag-japan","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-scotland","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685629","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=685629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}