If you have been hunting for this year's Rugby Championship fixtures, you can stop. There is no Rugby Championship in 2026.
The southern hemisphere's annual tournament has been squeezed off the calendar by two much bigger arrivals, and the Springboks will defend the title they have won twice running in 2027 instead.
Where did the Rugby Championship go?
SANZAAR confirmed last October that the tournament would sit out 2026. The first reason is Rugby's Greatest Rivalry, the All Blacks' eight-match tour of South Africa that runs from 7 August to 12 September and occupies the window the Championship normally fills.
The second is the launch of the Nations Championship, World Rugby's new global competition, which claims the July and November Test windows. Between a once-in-30-years tour and a brand new world league, there was simply no room left for the day job.
What is the Nations Championship?
It is a 12-team competition played every two years, splitting the world into two conferences: the Six Nations on one side, and the four SANZAAR nations plus Fiji and Japan on the other.
Each team plays cross-conference matches in July and November, and the top sides meet in a final in London. The opening block is already done, and both SANZAAR heavyweights made the perfect start.
The Springboks beat England, Scotland and Wales on home soil, while the All Blacks matched them beating France, Italy and Ireland in New Zealand. Two unbeaten campaigns now collide on 7 August, when the Nations Championship gives way to the Greatest Rivalry.
When does the Rugby Championship return?
In 2027, as a full four-team tournament in an earlier July and August slot, serving as the shop window before the World Cup in Australia.
Enjoy it while it lasts, because the new rhythm of the calendar means the Championship now skips even years. Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh has confirmed there will be no edition in 2026, 2028 or 2030, with the Springboks touring New Zealand in that last one.
The Rugby Championship is not dead. It has just become a connoisseur's tournament, appearing in odd years only.
What are the Wallabies and Pumas doing instead?
Filling the gap as best they can. Both play their Nations Championship fixtures, Australia has standalone Bledisloe Cup meetings with New Zealand in the diary and Argentina host the Wallabies in one-off Tests.
The Springboks have not abandoned the Pumas either, with a one-off Test against Argentina scheduled for 8 August, a fortnight before the first All Blacks Test at Ellis Park. The four old rivals will all still see each other.
Just not, for the first time since 1996, around the same table.
