Ireland - Australia

Welcome to the new Nations championship.

What that is, I'm not really sure yet but we have a brand spanking new global rugby tournament consisting of the top twelve teams in the world.

Ref: Rugby Asia

Does this sound a lot like the world cup?
Yes, yes it does.

Will it be the exact same?
Not quite.

The 12 nations are split into two geographically themed groups of six, primarily representing the Northern and Southern hemispheres

• The European Pool (Northern Hemisphere): England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales.

• The Rest of the World Pool (Southern Hemisphere): Argentina, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, South Africa, and Japan (placed in this pool for tournament

Teams do not play the other countries in their own pool. Instead, every team plays all six teams from the opposing pool exactly once across two distinct phases.

• The Southern Series (July): The Northern Hemisphere teams travel south to play three away matches against Southern Hemisphere opponents.

• The Northern Series (November): The Southern Hemisphere teams travel north for three reciprocal away matches.

While teams only play cross-hemisphere matches, their results and competition points (4 for a win, 2 for a draw, plus standard bonus points) are logged into a table alongside their own pool counterparts.

• 1st place North vs. 1st place South (The winner is crowned the ultimate Nations Championship winner).

• 2nd place North vs. 2nd place South (Playing for 3rd place overall), and so on down to 6th place.

It's going to be held every two years to prevent cross contamination with the world cup and lions.

Will it work??

Hard to know how a competition will take shape before it begins but we always had a November series anyway against the southern countries so that's not much of a change but now there is a more competitive element to the games with a league and rankings.

These teams are all well used to playing each other and players love games so I think that it will build rivalries over the next few years and could get a bit spicy between certain teams.

The fact that I can watch a competitive Ireland game at 11am over here can only be a good thing in a sold out stadium versus a top tier team.

There is a lot of sporting events on at the moment so they are trying to break into a crowded market especially in a world cup year.

Just today I'm going to watch this game at 11am. The first hurling semi final at 4pm and then world cup at maybe 6 and definitely 10.
I also have the two kids to mind for the day since my missus is on a hen so the rugby is putting a lot of pressure on my time.

In a good competition I would be hoping to watch a lot of the matches rather than just the Ireland ones which won't be possible right now.