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Truncated 2026 Men's Six Nations schedule to break with tradition


Louis Bielle-Biarrey is congratulated by his teammates after scoring a try vs Ireland in Dublin in 2025. Photo: PA
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The 2026 Guinness Men’s Six Nations will break with tradition and kick off on a Thursday night for the first time in the championship’s current format.

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The championship has kicked off on a Thursday night before, but that was in 1948 when known as the Five Nations.

Ireland beat France 13-6 on that occasion, on New Year’s Day in Paris, and will be hoping for an identical outcome when they take on France on Thursday, February 5th, in the opening match of the 2026 tournament.

The remainder of the opening round games take place on Saturday, February 7th, with Italy up against Scotland and England entertaining Wales.

The schedule also includes a Friday night game, Ireland vs Wales in round four, while the championship will conclude on Saturday evening, on French soil, with the latest instalment of Le Crunch between France and England.

The match against England will be Les Bleus’ third home game, as they also host Italy in round three, but the venue for those matches has yet to be confirmed due to ongoing negotiations between the FFR and the Stade de France’s new site operator, GL Events.

Due to a change in the rugby calendar, there will only be one fallow week instead of the usual two, with the men’s U20 fixtures mirroring that of the senior competition. Meanwhile, the 2026 Guinness Women’s Six Nations will kick off three weeks later than normal, following the conclusion of the men’s championship.

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In the UK, ITV and BBC Sport will bring live free-to-air coverage of the Six Nations across TV, radio and digital platforms. ITV will broadcast ten matches in 2026, including all England matches. BBC Sport will feature live TV coverage, TV highlights and digital clips, including five live matches involving Scotland and Wales.

2026 Men’s Guinness Six Nations fixtures in full

Round 1
Thursday, February 5: France v Ireland, KO 20:10
Saturday, February 7: Italy v Scotland, KO 14:10
Saturday, February 7: England v Wales, KO 16:40

Round 2
Saturday, February 14: Ireland v Italy, KO 14:10
Saturday, February 14:  Scotland v England, KO 16:40
Sunday, February 15: Wales v France, KO 15:10

Round 3
Saturday, February 21: England v Ireland, KO 14:10
Saturday, February 21: Wales v Scotland, KO 16:40
Sunday, February 22: France v Italy, KO 15:10

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Round 4
Friday, March 6: Ireland v Wales, KO 20:10
Saturday, March 7: Scotland v France, KO 14:10
Saturday, March 7: Italy v England, KO 16:40

Round 5
Saturday, March 14: Ireland v Scotland, KO 14:10
Saturday, March 14, Wales v Italy, KO 16:40
Saturday, March 14, France v England, KO 20:10

*All KO times are GMT

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Nickers 30 minutes ago
All Blacks to field new starting winger and converted flanker against Ireland

He didnt play well there which is why the experiment was ended. There are only so many games you play someone who is not performing the basics of their role. Taking out our best lock to be an underperforming flanker makes no sense. It’s a double negative. He’s mobile for a lock. But he’s not mobile for a loose forward. He’s slow for a loose forward and it shows against certain opponents. The ABs can’t out-south Africa or out-France either of those teams, but we can out-all black anyone. The combination of missing him at lock and having him in the loose forwards will make us worse than we could be while that is happening. He will move to lock after 40/50 minutes, and we will have 3 loosies in the field and everything will look better as a result. Ardie, Sititi, Lakai, Segner, and Jacobson are our best loose forwards and they are all super versatile. We have no requirement to turn our premier lock into a flanker. Maybe 33 yo Frizzell will slot back in to the World Cup team seamlessly, but more likely his best years are behind him and all of those mentioned are better options. Barrett actually had a great game at 6 - in the first test against Ireland I think? But injuries meant he had to go back to lock. Then Frizzell emerged. But that was a different team playing a different style. Had it not been for the lock injuries I think he was first choice at 6 for Foster rather than abandoned experiment. But he has been injured so much since the last World Cup he’s never really got back to full fitness.

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