Nations Championship: from Christchurch to Cardiff, rugby launches a new North-South showpiece

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — 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.

Spinoffs

Looming larger than the Championship for the All Blacks and Springboks will be their four-test contest in August, and for all teams it will be the 2027 World Cup.

It may not be a true litmus test for the popularity of the tournament among fans but when tickets for the match between South Africa and England at 62,000 seat Ellis Park went on sale, barely 21,000 sold early on.

“The impact of the war in Iran has undoubtedly had an impact on everyone’s pockets which is reflected in the retail industry as well as in ticket sales,” a Sout Africa Rugby spokesperson told the Rapport newspaper.

“We hope to get close to the historical average attendance against England in South Africa which is 91% of the stadium’s capacity.”

Preparations

The Boks have been training earnestly for the occasion, regardless of the apparent ennui among fans.

“England are a quality outfit and they will present a completely different challenge to that which we faced against the Barbarians as they are a settled squad and come off a Six Nations campaign,” head coach Rassie Erasmus said. “We're pleased that we had the opportunity to give our players invaluable game time before the Nations Championship.

“The team is aligned on the expectations and standards going into the competition ... (and) we are ready to get the international season into full swing.”

New All Blacks coach Dave Rennie excited only a little controversy with his first squad of the season, more about whom he left out than put in.

New Zealand will face a France squad bolstered by the return of players who took part in the French Top 14 club final, including flyhalf Romain Ntamack from four-time champion Toulouse. In a setback for the French, inspirational scrumhalf Antoine Dupont was ruled out.

“I hope we can bring our end of season energy to that squad,” Ntamack said. “There will be two matches to play on the tour (against New Zealand and Australia). They will be two different contexts. But heading down there with a feeling of job done is something.”

Saturday's Wallabies vs. Ireland test in Sydney is a sellout. At the end of the Joe Schmidt coaching era and near the beginning of the Les Kiss era there seems to be new optimism in Australian rugby. That’s despite the fact the Wallabies came away winless from their end-of-year tour to Britain last year and Australian teams fell short again in Super Rugby.

“We’ll definitely look to rectify that,” veteran prop Allan Alaalatoa said. “With the first game being a sellout, it shows that there’s a lot of passion for rugby here in Australia and it definitely motivates” the Wallabies.

Japan, Argentina and Fiji will set out to prove themselves in a tournament that might have to go a long way to prove itself.

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