NEW: Nations Championship Rugby Predictor begins this weekend

This weekend will see the start of a brand new international rugby tournament, the Nations Championship.

Replacing the previous individual Tests or Test series we saw between nations in the July and November windows, this new tournament adds a competition structure to the fixtures played in said windows.

The Nations Championship features the Six Nations teams as the Northern Hemisphere representatives, and the Rugby Championship teams plus Fiji and Japan as the Southern Hemisphere representatives (despite Japan technically being North).

Across July and November, each NH nation will face each SH nation once. Though they are facing the opposing hemisphere nations, each team is ranked on separated NH and SH tables, with 'finals weekend' in late November then seeing 1st vs. 1st, 2nd vs. 2nd and so on.

This weekend

On Superbru, you can make prediction for every single match in the new Nations Championship. The opening Round 1 fixtures each take place this Saturday and are as follows:

• 🇳🇿 New Zealand vs. France 🇫🇷 (Christchurch)
• 🇯🇵 Japan vs. Italy 🇮🇹 (Tokyo)
• 🇦🇺 Australia vs. Ireland ☘️ (Sydney)
• 🇫🇯 Fiji vs. Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (Cardiff)
• 🇿🇦 South Africa vs. England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (Johannesburg)
• 🇦🇷 Argentina vs. Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (Cordoba)

Throughout the competition, keep an eye on the venues. Fiji's 'home' games this month, aren't really home games at all as they're playing Wales in Cardiff this weekend as you can see. Similarly, some of Japan's 'home' matches are being played in Australia.

In our Predictor game, fixtures are all set up for the entire tournament.

Individual match previews will be available for Superbru Premium users.

Be aware that in the last 'finals weekend' round, increased WP values are in play. Each match will have a WP value worth at least 1.5pts, with the 2nd vs. 2nd clash worth 2pts and the 1st vs. 1st match worth 3pts.

Good luck!