From the moment news broke that the New Zealand and South African national unions had reached agreement for quadrennial bilateral tours beginning in 2026, one question has stood out in southern hemisphere rugby: What does this mean for The Rugby Championship?
Coming out of a rivalry that extends back more than a century, and fuelled by maybe the greatest Rugby World Cup final in ten editions of the game’s pinnacle tournament, reports emerged in early September that New Zealand Rugby and the South African Rugby Union were on the verge of ignoring SANZAAR partners, Rugby Australia and the Unión Argentina de Rugby, and are now simply making their own arrangements.
On top of the SANZAAR and Six Nations Rugby-led Nations Championship kicking off biennially from 2026, NZR and SARU’s agreement proposed South Africa would host in 2026 and New Zealand in 2030, and that the first iteration of the tour arrangement would have the All Blacks play the four South African URC teams – the Lions, Sharks, Bulls and Stormers – a match against South Africa A, and three blockbuster Test Matches against the World Champion Springboks. It would mark NZ’s first full tour of the Republic in three decades.
But when the news of “Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry”, as it’s been dubbed, did emerge in early September, the reporting as to the status of The Rugby Championship for 2026 and 2030 varied considerably.
Much of the reporting out of New Zealand echoed NZR’s preference for TRC to not be played at all in the tour years, while other reporting mentioned SARU’s preference to play the TRC as a single round as happens in RWC years.
“The Rugby Championship will still happen, but it will probably be a single round, which we are pushing for,” SARU CEO Rian Oberholzer was quoted in reporting.
“If it is not going to happen, we as SARU did say to Argentina and Australia that we will play one-off Test matches against them.”
NZR have similarly committed to still play two Bledisloe Cup fixtures in 2026 and 2030, and this being the case, it would certainly seem strange if games were played against SANZAAR partners and they weren’t included in annuls of The Rugby Championship.
Clearly, there’s still a lot to play out.
Indeed, SANZAAR were given the opportunity to outline any background role they had in the NZR/SARU tour discussions and TRC impacts for this column, but declined, citing the complexity of the next broadcast cycle from 2026, including the first iteration of the Nations Championship, now reportedly set to be played in London.
It is premature to go into any details around the future format of The Rugby Championship at present as there is much to finalise in terms of the overall playing window.
Rugby Championship spokesperson
“Therefore, it is premature to go into any details around the future format of The Rugby Championship at present as there is much to finalise in terms of the overall playing windows,” their spokesperson said in response.
From a Rugby Australia point of view, Chairman Daniel Herbert has alluded to compensation for Australia and Argentina for the loss of TRC fixtures against the Springboks and All Blacks, and there has been suggestion that the significant commercial benefits from the NZ/SA tours could make this a very real prospect.
In some respects, it might be more benefit to RA and the UAR to not play the TRC in the tour years.
But the rugby calendar in 2026 and 2030 will still have significant TRC-shaped holes that need to be filled, and this is where a recent podcast conversation has stuck with me over the last few weeks.
London-based South African Planet Rugby scribe Jared Wright joined Harry Jones and I on The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast a few weeks ago to wrap up The Rugby Championship for 2024, and within that we pondered the tournament’s future, with news of the NZ-SA tours still fresh in our minds
With the three of us none the wiser what might happen in 2026 – there’s that complexity and uncertainty again – I wondered if this was the opportunity for SANZAAR to finally bring Japan and Fiji into The Rugby Championship, even if just as a gap-filler in these tour years. It was a throwaway line based on nothing more than a feeling, but we all agreed that it was an idea worth exploring.
“If I approach this just as a fan, just as a fan, that would be all-time,” Stan Sport’s voice of Australian rugby, Sean Maloney said when I put the idea to him this month.
“That would be so good to see. And just as a pure rugby fan, I think the reason it would be so good is because there’s automatic buy-in on the other side as well.
“The Japanese fans are going to turn up, they’re going to fill whatever stadium they get a chance to get to, and the same with Fiji. So, from a fan perspective, seeing full stadiums, and seeing people going berserk for their team would be unreal.”
If we just look at this from an understanding the game better point of view, it would give Australians the chance to travel to Fiji to see firsthand how much the game means to them over there.
Sean Maloney
Maloney still speaks in glowing terms of his experience covering the 2019 RWC in Japan, and even the local support for the Sunwolves during their time in Super Rugby convinces him of Japan’s need to be more involved than they currently are.
“They’re insatiable over there. Even when the ‘Moondogs’ were going along, you’d still get new full houses. They’ve got a massive appetite for it,” he says, name-dropping the endearing colloquialism given to the Sunwolves by Australian and New Zealand Super Rugby fans during their five-year run.
Maloney says there would be no trouble selling tickets for Test Matches in Suva or Nadi, either, quickly adding that he could easily see Wallabies fans jumping at the idea of a rugby weekend in Fiji with a few days golf at one of many outstanding resort courses on the islands either side. He quite likes the idea himself, in fact.
“I mean, if we just look at this from an understanding the game better point of view, it would give Australians the chance to travel to Fiji to see firsthand how much the game means to them over there,” he says.
“Go and see how they can take an empty 1.25 litre Coke bottle and turn it into a footy and have the time of their lives. It would just give Aussie fans the chance to get true perspective, from a rugby sense and a life sense.”
But the idea of Argentina, Fiji, Australia, and Japan – currently ranked 6th, 9th, 10th and 14th respectively on the World Rugby standings – coming together in a single tournament quickly brings with it a sense of expectation. Those four teams, on current form, would match up quite well and would create a genuine spectacle.
“It’s not just that. It’s the contrasting styles of play as well, which is awesome,” Maloney agrees.
“Those four styles of play generally bring points. So, the pace at which Japan play, and then the offloading game with Fiji, and then Argentina and the Aussies pulling it together.
“I reckon it would be awesome. I really do. I think it would be a fantastic way to fill that void if we don’t get a chance to see the established Rugby Championship through those periods of time, and I also think there’s elements of it being the right thing to do.”
The last point is an important one. The idea of expanding The Rugby Championship has certainly been around since the Brave Blossoms’ superb showing as RWC hosts in 2019, and even gathered pace for a short time when the Flying Fijians reached their first ever RWC knockout stage in France in 2023 – ironically, at the expense of the Wallabies not reaching a RWC knockout stage for the first time.
But progress has been glacially slow since then. In fact, the emergence of the Nations Championship, and Japan and Fiji’s widely assumed but still yet to be confirmed inclusion as the 11th and 12th teams has perhaps brought TRC expansion talk to a grinding halt.
Under an Eddie Jones second coming of their own, Japan have slipped from 11th and 12th in the world rankings earlier in the year to their current 14th as they embark on the inevitable re-jig under a new coach. They’ll play New Zealand, France and England in the November window, but like all teams trying to break into the top ten, crave more so-called ‘top tier’ fixtures.
Fiji, on the other hand, have just carried on under new national coach Mick Byrne, and rose from 11th to their current 9th on the back of thumping Japan 41-14 in Osaka, to claim the Pacific Nations Cup last month.
Their rise has been a continuation of the good work Simon Rawailui started 18 months ago in the run-up to the RWC in France, and has benefitted tremendously from the promotion of Byrne to the national side from the Fijian Drua in Super Rugby.
Familiarity has been the key, as more and more Drua players fill the national Flying Fijians squad, and with Byrne now able to enhance the skillsets and gameplans he had as Drua coach with the addition of genuine international stars like centres Waisea Nayacalevu and Semi Radradra and so many others plying their trade in Europe.
Mark Evans, the former Saracens, Harlequins, and Western Force CEO, has overseen the Drua’s rise in Super Rugby as CEO since their admission, and has already seen the local pathways benefit from the presence of professional rugby on-islands has done for the game in Fiji.
“We run a 37-38 man senior squad for the Drua, with a 10-12 player development squad underneath,” Evans explains.
“This year, we’ve just started the Academy for 16-19 year-olds, which in two years’ time will be populated with around 90 boys. It’s created a pretty decent structure that should do two things – it should produce a constant stream of players, and it should give boys at 15 or 16 years of age an alternative to going overseas.”
No other team plays so many games away as Fiji. In the last 18 months, I think Fiji have played something like 25 games. Three of them have been at home.
Mark Evans
Evans mentions Radradra and others who have gone off to the NRL in Australia, and what he calls the “generational talents” that have left home at 17 to go into JIFF programs in France, the Joueurs Issus des Filières de Formation,designed to qualify players for Les Bleus by 22 or 23.
“We hope these pathways will encourage boys to stay in Fiji, come through and play for the Drua, then go on to play for the Flying Fijians, and then maybe they might go to Europe or Japan at 27 or 28 just like happens everywhere else,” he says.
Evans says the Nations Championship, if Fiji are included as has been reported since the concept was first mentioned, provides Fijian rugby the next important step in their international growth.
“That is really important for us at a number of levels,” Evans says.
“One, I think we’re ready for it. The other is that I think we will be a handful for any team in Fiji.
“No other team plays so many games away as Fiji. In the last 18 months, I think Fiji have played something like 25 games.
“Three of them have been at home.”
Importantly, the Nations Championship would finally give Fiji a chance to play ‘top tier’ nations on home soil, something that hasn’t really happened since they hosted Scotland in Suva back in 2017. Despite the proximity, and now the Super Rugby Pacific links, the Wallabies or All Blacks both haven’t played in Fiji since 1984.
The commercial and economic constraints are often cited as a prohibitor of top teams touring Fiji, but Evans rightly makes the point that it’s even harder to overcome these economic constraints if you never get any content to monetise in your home market.
“The Drua have shown time and time again that there is a market in Fiji. Only a million, or just under a million people, but they’re all bonkers about the game and there is a market. And so, with good management, I think the Nations Championship ticks every box at every level.”
Fiji playing in The Rugby Championship, even if only in those NZ-SA tour years would similarly tick those boxes. More international content on home soil would bring significant economic benefit with it, but it would also enhance the already visible and strengthening rugby pathways put in place by the Drua.
From a personal point of view, as a fan, I’d love to see Fiji and Japan come in, but as a broadcaster, you would just bend over backwards to call those games because they’re both teams that are awesome to watch.
More than that though, SANZAAR has also shown it can adapt when needed.
When the Springboks chose not to come to Australia in the first COVID-impacted season in 2020, SANZAAR resurrected the old Tri-Nations tournament, and the Wallabies, All Blacks, and Los Pumas just carried on. The precedent for SANZAAR members not playing in TRC for a season is right there in the history books.
But would they want to adapt? And would NZR and SARU let The Rugby Championship carry on without them?
We’ll find out in due course, with discussions around new broadcast negotiations for 2026 underway. It seems like the perfect appetiser toward what should be an inevitable step of expanding TRC, yet it remains far from certain.
“I don’t know why we don’t just start that in ‘26 as a taste test and see how it goes,” Maloney concludes.
“From a personal point of view, as a fan, I’d love to see Fiji and Japan come in, but as a broadcaster, you would just bend over backwards to call those games because they’re both teams that are awesome to watch, and that are then in turn soaked up by fans across those regions who absolutely love the game.
I mean, you can’t miss. They’re not just two awesome rugby-playing countries, they’re just two awesome countries full stop. It’s a no brainer.”
To clarify, the Flying Fijians qualified for their 3rd RWC quarterfinals in 2023. They previously played RWC quarters in 2007 and 1987
Yes, noted above Rob..
A friend from the UK suggested to me that we need to realign our TRC to a timing that overlaps with the 6N. I think that the Premiership and perhaps the Top 14 take breaks in their competitions around this time (not sure about Top 14 tbh). If we did that, we would have to make some changes to SR but I think there is some flexibility there. And we might also move our games in the July test window to midweek games and continue to play the SR games on the weekends (or have half the teams on byes as they do in the NRL). So we could have Wednesday night tests on the alternate nights to the S.O.O - in midwinter, which rate really well and would give the broadcaster a product that they want at probably a time they want. We could then run our SR for additional rounds, hold the finals later rather than running out in early June. And perhaps have time for crossover competitions with Japan or SA clubs in the window normally reserved for the TRC. NZ will run their tours with SA in that time period too I suppose and we could potentially tour Argentina and the Americas (which is going to get a lot more focus and hopefully grow as a market in the lead up to 2031 RWC in the USA).
Some level of forethought wouldn't go astray, the travel kills the SA and Argentina games, both from a spectator/time zone point of view, but a player fatigue point of view. It would be interesting to see if a place for SA could ever be justified in six nations in the first place, when you could develop Georgia's inclusion. Longer term getting Fiji and Japan would align for viewers, so it def has to be investigated. World rugby should actually get involved and talk of what are the marque tournaments for the game globally, then build it around then, ideally a pan America tournament may be an option. But first and foremost, we need to drive engagement by settling on trophies that have longevity and means something for viewers or else people won't tune in.
There’s no competitive Panamerican rugby. It has been a wet dream for decades. And people keep dreaming it.
Of little commercial interest in Argentina for the Pumas. It’s just a development program for aspiring pro players.
My gut feeling A-Rod is that SANZAAR and Six Nations Rugby have come together to create the Nations Championship not just to kill off the idea of the 'Boks joining the 6Ns, but so that everyone can have their cake and eat it.
The southern hemisphere teams get guaranteed full strength 6Ns teams coming south, and the north gets the benefit of (for now) of games against the 'Boks and ABs..
Why not?
It's already a third rate substandard comp - so what's it going to hurt it, right?
Gives the Saffas a chance to moan again to he rugny world about how good their third best team in the world is.
And we all benefit form that. Apparently.
SA and NZ are used to playing 6 fixtures in a TRC cycle. NZ and SA will now play 3 times so they need 3 other fixtures to fill the gap. A truncated TRC is an option to fill that void. NZ said they will play 2 bledisloe matches and could easily fit in a game against Arg. SA has already said they will play Arg and Aus in the tour years and will likely fit in a second game against Arg or Aus as part of their 6 matches. Aus could also easily fit in games against Fiji, Japan and Arg during the tours which can cover their 3/4 matches. This could form the basis of a new comp between those sides but the real problem will be money and commercial opportunities. I really feel like Aus and Arg have been left in the dust. The tours are great but SANZAAR and TRC have been made a mockery of. Southern hemisphere rugby is in the midst of a huge transition and it looks ugly. NZ Rugby have realised they cant get stranded on a island alone with Aus and its other pacific partners and SA have realised that they cant move up to the Six Nations just yet as the appetite for it has not truly developed. So now we have these tours but it has completely isolated poor Argentina and Aus. NZ and SA are in a marriage of convenience with these tours that hugely benefit them both. Aus and NZ have not gone to Fiji since 1984. I am sorry but that is a disgrace. As a result France and quite frankly everyone else has made a habit of stealing pacific island players. Aus and NZ have also enjoyed the fruits of a suppressed and undeveloped Fijian rugby system which has produced many of their players. Instead of becoming stronger together teams in the south have always prioritised their own interests and Fiji, Tonga and Samoa have always been the biggest losers in the pacific. While the Six Nations grows and Northern rugby rises Southern rugby continues its zero sum game with Aus and Arg being the latest losers.
"France and quite frankly everyone else have made a habit of stealing pacific island players"
This is partly false, most of the Pacific players playing for France are from overseas Wallis and Futuna and New Caledonia. Only Uini Atonio was naturalized having been born in NZ to Samoan parents. But Moefana, the Taofifenua brothers and Peato Mauvaka are all from Wallis and Futuna. Moefana was born and raised there, Mauvaka (whose grandfather is a former king of Futuna) and the Taofifenua brothers were born and raised in New Caledonia where a large Wallisian community lives (about 20% of the total population of the island). By the way, Mathieu Jalibert our fly-half was born there because his father was a military in a French base and he learned and loved rugby on this island with this atmosphere
You do realise most of these foreign-born players' families willingly moved to places like NZ and Aus during their childhood? It had little to do with Rugby. In fact, NZ for example has over 400,000 people of Pasifika descent living there (that's roughly 7-8% of the whole population), and a lot of these people who are claimed to be "foreign-born" were actually born in the countries they're representing.
Pretty bold claim when top Rugby officials and people in countries like Fiji actually take pride in their people going overseas and joining top teams.
This is good post SK, thank you..
Thanks for the article, Brett. For sure an interesting topic. Fiji coming in would be good. But they would need to always have their overseas players available to be fully competitive.
Japan have always been a good team to play, but there are doubts as to where they are going under Eddie Jones. As always he is talking himself up, but the latest results are poor. The 41 - 17 defeat in the PN Cup Final in Sept. for example. But in the longer term, under a better coaching team, would def. be wanting to play them each year.
Cheers Mzil, it feels like it could work and it absolutely feels like something that should be looked at. And it may be, to be fair..
I think something needs to change but not really sure where they will go with it. The RC has become a bit stale in some ways ( like the 6N from an outsiders perspective ) and Id love to see more tours again, including SH teams touring the NH during the Nov window. The constant flow of playing 4-5 nations in 5 weeks is not doing muck for the SH sides, yet the NH sides make millions off it, then send 2nd string sides to the SH in the june window. We SH sides are being taken for a ride in many aspects. NH sides make most of the money during the Oct window then devalue the tours down under where its our turn to profit.
I dont understand the "compensation" thing but hopefully that will get clearer over time. Compensation and handouts only ever seems to go one way and that needs to stop.
Certainly NZ, Fiji and Japan could play tests outside the "test" windows if they decided to do that. An ANZAC test is one such proposal doing the rounds at the moment, and NZ v Aus can take place at any time really. I can see Unions working more independently of WR in future, as WR doesnt seem to have the ability to force teams to tour with their best players.
Head High, the Nations Championship will certainly ensure the July and November Tests are played with the strongest teams, particularly if it becomes a major revenue maker..
Thanks for all the early comments everyone, nice to see the idea evoking some discussion.
One other idea that Mark Evans thought of while we were talking, and which I had to leave out of the article, was the possibility of Australia and Argentina joining the Pacific Nations Cup in those tour years..
And I have to say, this idea has some merit too, especially if RA and the UAR do receive some degree of compensation for the lost TRC games.
There's a 'right thing to do' elemebet about it, and Australia A played in the PNC only last year, so it has hed flexibility in the past, too.
Because Argentina has a huge coast on the Pacific…😳🤦♂️
I mean, I just thought this would be a new TRC model, that NZ and SA were just the first to announce it but AUS v ARG would follow. You could have TRC played out over multiple years, or just host a one off Final in like HK of the two series winners.
What I don't really see though is Fiji and Japan taking on that much for a single year. It just does not work out right. Five more tier 1 games a year would hurt their NC prospects (hard enough to step up to 6 guaranteed tier 1's, were often would be mixed with tier2), give them time to build up to that level of competitiveness.
I've probably caught most of it coming out in dribs and drabs but is there not more to the summary of what talk has come out of Australia (RA) about these years? Would they have the same take as SANZAARs response?
I agree with the flexibility of TRC though, Japan and Fiji could replace NZ and SA those years. The occasional appearance would be good but might suit Lions years? I still think my preference would still be to turn those years into tour based TRC formats.
Following a RWC a series based two year TRC, with full tours the first year, and just 3 match series the BIL (second) year, one during the 6N and the other following the Lions (maybe the other two countries have a full tour), then a full H&A double round TRC (or single with 6 teams) the third year, and then a single round RWC year?
Obviously whatever happens needs to be tied in with PNC as you can't continue to give Japan a spot simply because they have the best economy. This needs to be merit based.
That could well still be the way things play out JW. As I say, things are far from certain right now, but the discussions about what things look like from 2026 and beyond would absolutely be happening..
Also, correct about compensation, it's the same concept that FRR should compensate all their July opponents if they continue wanting to be part of tier1 reciprical tours (while withholding their top 20 of course).
If RA and URA feel that they can include Fiji and Japan to their four team competition when the tours are on then they should do it. No one is stopping them just like no one is stopping SARU and NZR from organizing bi-lateral tours.
As for compensation Herbert should first try and get his $700,000 Euros from the FFR for some non existent deal and then he should read the fine print and realize that the Rugby Championship is actually ending in 2025, so there will be no compensation in 2026. Any 13 year old will be able to explain to Herbert the nuances of a non existent agreement.
Well actually RugCs, as SANZAAR partners, NZ and RSA can absolutely stop RA and the UAR doing that. The partnership operates on consensus, and one veto vote can absolutely stop something happening..
A shame, you did so well with your first paragraph.
Fiji made the rwc quarter finals twice before 2023 in 1987 and 2007 along with the quarter final playoffs in 1999. Surely the writer can't forget one of the greatest ever games when fiji knocked out wales in 2007
Is that as many times as the Irish?
Yes, I've got my wires crossed there Liam. Last year was their fourth time..
no
It's definitely time we see All blacks bring change to their calendar. AB's for last 15 years now have been versing mainly 'traditional' sides and been too conservative. Regularly seeing AB's do once off 4 year period or don't at all verse sides like Tonga, Samoa, Georgia, Japan, Uruguay and 8th Ranked Europe team. They should be playing all these sides every 4 years! Watching the AB's is boring watching likes of Ireland, Wales, France on regular basis! Lastly watching the AB's vs Springboks feels meaningless since they're both in Rugby Championship when they are competing with Australia & Argentina too.
If the AB's were versing Springboks outside of Rugby Championship every year, replacing it with Freedom Cup, Doesn't make sense to be playing it in Rugby Championship! AB's vs Springboks outside Rugby Championship makes more sense, would bring more meaning, would strengthen the rivalry between them, reach out new audiences, bring understanding of significance between them, become like State of Origin of rugby union and grow rugby game overall! Makes total sense if we swapped out Springboks(move to Six Nations) with Fiji in Rugby Championship. All Blacks calendar really needs to change too!
AB's top 'Marquee Players' (Beauden Barrett, TJ Perenara, Sam Cane, Ardie Savea, Rieko Ioane) should only be selected for matches against top 8 ranked teams and not feature in Rugby Championship which prevents next generation of players(Stephen Perofeta, Noah Hotham, Dalton Papalii, Samipeni Finau, Billy Proctor) properly developing to their true form on international level.
AJ, I feel like you've completely missed the point of the article.
The need to bring teams into the TRC is because NZ and RSA want to play each other instead of the TRC.
What do you think it doesn't make sense to have a trophy within a trophy?
NZ's domestic scene has the Ranfurly Shield within the Bunnings NPC. I think it works great. You might win the Freedom Cup but you might not win TRC!
Because you bring up SOO to me it sounds like a concept where you think say "who wins a proper 3 or 5 match series between All Blacks and Springboks is more relevant that who wins a one off RWC". While I agree a series might be a harder prospect than three sequential games against random opponents, it really goes against the game for me. RWC is the peak, enjoy your Freedom Cup if you want to (and maybe more would than a RWC Final), but the right thing to do is not segregate the game like that.
Need to invest in adding these two countries and improving them like Argentina did.
Going to a rugby game in Fiji should be a bucket list item for every die-hard sports fan.
Needs to be marketed as such.
Funnily enough MOMAAB, the Nations Championship - giving Japan and Fiji 6 games against top 10 teams - will do exactly that...
Not going to happen. Fiji met with SANZAAR a while back, and were told they had to fulfil certain requirements before they'd consider them. Not to mention 3 out of the 4 SANZAAR unions are in financial difficulty, so they'd be no use in playing a second-tier country like Fiji, when they could maximise profit with another first-tier nation instead.
Yes, as JWH says above Ice, bringing Japan and Fiji into TRC for the tour years would ensure the full set of games are played - which would obviously maximise revenue better than not playing games at all..
WR can provide compensation to make it happen.
They would just be adding tests, not remov9ng any, so they would be making more money. Plus, they make a lot playing japan every time. That's why they do it so much
Fiji should 100% be included. Not even debateable. If there is a debate to be had, it should be about Japan who have gone backwards at a rate of knots. Georgia are more worthy.
Yeah, that's a fair point, NH..
Quadrennial bilateral…
That’s either a group of muscles or 8?
🤔🧮
Yep, both sides of a group of four muscles - which still don't help my flexibility..