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Eleven of twelve World Rugby Nations Cup teams confirmed
By Ian Cameron
World Rugby has confirmed that preparations for the inaugural World Rugby Nations Cup are “advancing at pace”, with 11 of the 12 participants now locked in for the competition’s 2026 launch.
The new event sits beneath the forthcoming Nations Championship and forms a key plank of the reshaped global calendar that takes full effect from 2026 onwards.
It will run across the July and November windows in both 2026 and 2028, with crossover fixtures between the two tiers scheduled for 2027 and 2029.
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The Nations Cup line-up is now almost complete. Canada, Chile, Georgia, Hong Kong China, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Tonga, Uruguay, USA and Zimbabwe have already booked their places by qualifying for Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027.
The 12th and final team will be decided on 18 November via the Final Qualification Tournament in Dubai.
The new structure is designed to give developing unions guaranteed high-level test exposure, greater financial certainty and a clearer competitive narrative between World Cups.
The Nations Cup mirrors the format of the top-tier Nations Championship, which will debut in 2026 and include the Six Nations unions alongside Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and Fiji.
World Rugby Chair Brett Robinson said: “World Rugby exists to unite people and grow the game through iconic events like the men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups, and through strategic investment in programmes that expand rugby’s reach, relevance and impact. The new international calendar, featuring the men’s Nations Championship, World Rugby Nations Cup, and WXV Global Series for the women’s game, is central to that mission.
“Combining with the top-level Nations Championship, the World Rugby Nations Cup provides a strong platform for our performance unions to grow through certainty of test match content competition, competitiveness and commercial revenue for the first time, which in turn will lead to stronger outcomes at Men’s Rugby World Cup, the financial engine that drives the growth of the game from the grassroots up.”
Dates, pools and host locations for the 2026 Nations Cup are expected to be confirmed in due course.
