The Nations Championship begins at venues from Christchurch to Cardiff this weekend, in the shadow of the soccer World Cup and as a curious adjunct to rugby’s own world tournament.
New Zealand and France will play the opening match on Saturday, Japan will play Italy, Australia will play Ireland, Fiji will play Wales and South Africa will host England. In decisions that might bamboozle geographers, Fiji will play at “home” in Cardiff, Wales, and Tokyo will be deemed to be in the southern hemisphere for the duration of the tournament.
World Rugby bills the 12-team competition as North vs. South. The tournament has two conferences, the southern — in which northern teams are scheduled to travel south in July — and the northern — when southern teams will travel north in November.
Six rounds of matches will lead to a finals series in London in late November which World Rugby says will identify the best team in the world, something achieved more forensically every four years by the World Cup.
Integrated competition
Rugby has lacked integrated southern and northern calendars and this championship arises as a solution to that. It also provides fodder for broadcasters, and air miles. England’s squad will zigzag from Johannesburg, where they will play their first match Saturday, to Liverpool, where they will be “hosted” by Fiji and then to Argentina.
The old mid-year tours might have gone as far to satisfy curiosity about how the All Blacks will go under a new coach, how the Wallabies will perform in a period of transition between one coach and the next, and whether South Africa will remain the benchmark in test rugby. Japan, Fiji, Argentina and Italy will again be asked to show their memberships cards to the club of rugby’s elite top tier.
