Nations Championship to open with six-Test Saturday

TL;DR

The Nations Championship will kick off on July 4 with six Test matches, featuring England vs. South Africa and New Zealand vs. France. Fans can enjoy nearly nine hours of rugby with staggered kick-offs throughout the day.

Key points

Nations Championship begins on July 4
Six Test matches scheduled for the opening day
England faces South Africa in a key match
New Zealand hosts France in the first fixture
Fans can enjoy nine hours of rugby

Nations ChampionshipNew ZealandFranceAustralia

Ollie Sleightholme scores for England against South Africa

England and South Africa - who meet on the opening day of the Nations Championship - last played each other at Twickenham's Allianz Stadium in November 2024, with the Springboks winning 29-20 [Getty Images]

The new Nations Championship - a biennial series pitting northern hemisphere superpowers against their southern counterparts - will begin with a six-Test Super Saturday round of fixtures on 4 July.

Fans will be able to watch nearly nine hours of Test rugby, with kick-offs staggered throughout the day.

New Zealand host France at Christchurch's newly opened One New Zealand Stadium at 08:10 BST in the competition's first fixture, with Australia v Ireland (11:10) and South Africa v England (16:40) among the opening round's other highlights.

Fiji, who are staging their home fixtures in the northern hemisphere to ease logistics and maximise revenue, take on Wales at Cardiff City Stadium at 14:10, with Argentina facing Scotland in Cordoba at 20:10 in the day's final match.

The concept of a fixture-packed single day of action is repeated in the following two rounds of action, on 11 and 18 July.

Time differences mean that the action will straddle two days for fans in New Zealand and Australia, however.

"The schedule of fixtures and kick-off times across the tournament highlights the commitment to give global fans access to an incredible set of clashes and structured in a way that means they need never miss a moment of the action," said Six Nations chief executive Tom Harrison.

The new tournament represents unprecedented collaboration between Six Nations and Sanzaar, who organise the southern hemisphere's Rugby Championship.

Traditionally, northern hemisphere sides would individually organise tours for July - usually centred on Test series in a single southern-hemisphere nation. Southern-hemisphere sides would then travel north in November on separate itineraries for the autumn internationals.