The Nations Championship set to begin in 2026 will bring an annual world title up for grabs between the Six Nations nations, the SANZAAR nations and two further invitational teams.
This move will bolster the in-between years of a Rugby World Cup, but there has been an irregular, unofficial world title match since the formation of the modern professional calendar in 1996.
The Six Nations champion and Rugby Championship (formerly Tri-Nations) champions have met in the November window 11 times in 21 opportunities for a would-be title match between the two hemispheres.
In the absence of a full-scale Nations Championship, formalising this one-off game would have been an ideal solution that crowns an annual champion in a supplemental way to the Rugby World Cup.
A Champions’ champion match in a sanctioned ‘final’ would have been the most-watched game of rugby every year and add meaning to the calendar.
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