The World Rugby Nations Cup will be played in the Americas in July. A total of 18 test matches will take-place with half of them in South America and half in North America. The tournament will contain twelve teams, all of whom will compete at Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia.
The Nations Cup replaces the annual July Internationals. Rather than teams touring in July, the matches will be structured in a format of two pools of six. Half of the teams are thus touring in July and half hosting matches. However, this is not exactly the case as Samoa and Tonga are not hosting matches.
As was the case in the Rugby World Cup 2027 Qualifiers in the 2026 Pacific Nations Cup, Samoa will not play at home. Samoa faced the USA and Chile in North America and then Chile again in Santiago. For the 2026 Nations Cup, Samoa’s home matches will be played in Chile and Uruguay.
Tonga will play home matches in North America, specifically in Denver, Edmonton and Winnipeg. Tonga will do so against Zimbabwe, Spain and Portugal. The trio of matches represent very intriguing opportunities for locals to attend.
The two pools are arranged in a Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere format. The Americas make up four of the six teams in the Western Hemisphere (Group 1): Canada, Chile, Uruguay, and the USA. Samoa and Tonga join them. The Eastern Hemisphere (Group 2) will consist of Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Hong Kong and Zimbabwe.
The format sees each team facing every other team in the other pool. It will be a round-robin format with half the matches in July and half in November.
The July matches will be played between July 4 and 18. The full list of host venues is Cary (North Carolina), Charlotte (North Carolina, US), Denver (Colorado, US), Edmonton (Alberta, CA), Winnipeg (Manitoba, CA), La Serena (Chile), Santiago (Chile), Viña del Mar (Chile), and Montevideo (Uruguay).
The opening match of the inaugural World Rugby Nations Cup will be played at the Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo. Uruguay will have home advantage against the tournament favorites, Georgia.
The July fixtures are half of the Nations Cup. The second half will be the return matches in November. The dates and venues remain unconfirmed but are expected to be arranged entirely in Europe.
| WORLD RUGBY NATIONS CUP 2026 – JULY FIXTURES |
 WORLD RUGBY NATIONS CUP 2026 – GROUPS |
