Nations Cup 2026: Los Pumas join rugby’s game-changing tournament | OneFootball

The brand new tournament will unify the powers of the north and south in a biennial format, with 12 teams divided by hemisphere. What will happen with The Pumas.

World Rugby confirmed the arrival of the Nations Cup, a competition that promises to revolutionize the international rugby calendar. The tournament, which will be held every two years starting from 2026, will bring together the twelve most important powers on the planet, seeking to balance the matches between the teams of the northern hemisphere and those of the south. France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy will participate for Europe, while New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, Fiji and Japan will represent the southern hemisphere.

The Nations Cup 2026: what the new tournament will be like

With the arrival of the Nations Cup in 2026, international rugby is heading towards a historic restructuring. This tournament will bring together the twelve most important powers in the world, seeking to give a competitive and organized framework to the traditional duels between teams from the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere.

France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy will represent Europe, while New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, Fiji and Japan will do the same from the south. The competition will be biennial and will use the international windows of July and November, with a format that combines confrontations between conferences and interregional crosses. The design of the tournament contemplates that all the selected ones face each other in a balanced way, avoiding the saturation of the calendar and the extensive transfers.

The final phase of the Nations Cup will be held at a single venue, where the repositioning matches will be held and the champion will be crowned. Although it has not yet been confirmed which country will host this stage, the idea seeks to concentrate sports and media attention in a spectacular closing, in the style of a reduced World Cup.

The first edition will take place in a context of transition, as logistical aspects and criteria of locality remain to be defined, especially for the Pacific selected ones like Fiji, who could play their "home" matches in European territory.

The involved federations continue negotiating the details of the tours and displacements. For example, the president of the French Federation, Florian Grill, announced that his team will face New Zealand, Australia and Japan in July.

Meanwhile, British media maintain that England would face The Pumas, Fiji and South Africa, while Ireland would include in its agenda matches against Australia, All Blacks, Japan, Fiji and Argentina. So far, there are no official confirmations about these crosses, but it is expected that the complete calendar will be announced before the end of this year.

For The Pumas, the arrival of the Nations Cup represents both an opportunity and a challenge. The Argentine team, which usually plays 12 test matches annually, will lose six matches due to the new scheme, which led the UAR to seek alternatives to maintain competitiveness. So far, three matches have been secured in the country during the usual period of the Rugby Championship (between August and September): two against Australia and one against South Africa, all with a venue yet to be defined.

According to the calendar agreed between the unions of the south and the north, the Rugby Championship will return normally in 2027, 2028 and 2029, while in 2030 it will pause again to give way to a new edition of the Nations Cup and extended tours between All Blacks and Springboks.

In summary, the cycle that begins in 2026 will mark a new balance between tradition and innovation in international rugby: a more integrated global calendar, a regular elite competition between hemispheres and a renewed challenge for The Pumas, who will seek to consolidate themselves among the best in the world.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.