As England’s players embraced after the final whistle last Saturday, having finally secured a first home win over New Zealand in 13 years, how many people inside Allianz Stadium were thinking: “Thank goodness, we have won back the Hillary Shield.”
If you didn’t know, England and the All Blacks have been competing for that particular trophy, named after Sir Edmund Hillary, the New Zealander who conquered Everest, since 2008. If they must play for a trophy every Test, then naming it after Hillary is clearly an inspired choice. But beating the All Blacks is never about lifting the shield. It is about England proving themselves against one of the best sides in the world, making history.
Throughout the 2000s and 2010s a wave of similar trophies were introduced as each country tried to get in on the action, named after Giuseppe Garibaldi, James Bevan, Prince William and Admiral Brown. If you can identify all the teams involved in those bits of silverware without looking them up, then well done (answers below).
Now it was no longer about simply defeating the other team, there was a trophy on the line. Barring perhaps the Bledisloe Cup and Calcutta Cup – respectively Australia v New Zealand since 1931 and England v Scotland since 1879 – supporters and players have rarely been invested in these matches for the physical prize on offer.
Indeed, lifting silverware every week, which can sometimes happen during the Six Nations, diminishes the moment of lifting a trophy that actually matters, like the Six Nations or Rugby Championship or, the greatest prize, the Rugby World Cup.
The point is relevant because earlier this week, the fixtures for the inaugural year of the Nations Championship were released, with less than eight months to go until the opening matches take place in the “Southern Hemisphere Series”.
Traditionally the July and November Test windows have been for friendlies in different countries. England, for example, spent last summer playing Tests in Argentina and the US (while their best players were away with the British and Irish Lions), having gone to New Zealand in 2024 and Australia in 2022, with World Cup warm-ups in 2023.
The argument in support of the Nations Championship is that those friendlies lack incentive – one-off contests topping up the record books. There was a value to playing a three-Test tour in one country, but those have become rarer. In the Nations Championship, each of the matches will have a purpose, with enough wins and points across three Tests in July and three in November potentially securing a spot in the final between the best northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere sides, with the first finals weekend to be played in London at the end of next November.
Currently, South Africa and England look like the world’s top two sides. If that fixture was the headline act of next year’s finals weekend, it would undoubtedly have your attention. More jeopardy, more incentives to broadcasters and sponsors, more money coming into a sport which, frankly, needs it. There is obvious appeal there.
Already, you can probably see some of the issues coming down the track. Will having a Nations Championship-winning side every two years, technically the best team in the world, diminish the value of the Rugby World Cup? Possibly. The hype around the previous Rugby World Cup final was all about who out of New Zealand or South Africa would become the first side to win four World Cups. It already feels unlikely that everyone will care as much about which side is set to become the first four-time winner of the Nations Championship.
Another obvious point is that the hops between countries when southern hemisphere sides tour the north are considerably shorter than the journeys over only a few weeks for the northern hemisphere sides next summer. England will have two games in South Africa – one against the Springboks, another likely against Fiji at a neutral venue – before flying west to Argentina and then home. Comfortably more than 30 hours of flight time in the space of three to four weeks, at the end of the English domestic season.
Perhaps it will be easier to draw conclusions about the tournament when more information emerges, given right now several key details remain unknown: the broadcaster, the title sponsor – Qatar Airways were linked with an eight-year deal at the start of this year – the venues and kick-off times for next July’s matches which, to reiterate, are now less than eight months away. Even the trophy remains under wraps. It becomes too easy to be sceptical when you cannot see the full vision.
Other logistical queries include when we will see Fiji playing Nations Championship matches in Suva, with the lure of a higher revenue share when taking their home games overseas currently too good to turn down. Or, when factoring in the world rankings, whether one of Japan (13th) or Wales (12th) should really be involved in the Nations Championship next year given they currently rank below 11th-placed Georgia.
Will there be relegation and promotion in future between the Nations Championship and the second-tier Nations Cup, launching at the same time and featuring Canada, Chile, Georgia, Hong Kong, Portugal, Romania, Samoa, Spain, Tonga, Uruguay, United States and Zimbabwe? Again, Georgia have secured wins in the past four years over Italy, Wales and Japan. It feels odd they are not sitting at the top table, with Japan conveniently classified as a southern hemisphere participant despite being located considerably north of the equator.
Admittedly, rugby is not the first sport to try to spice up friendlies, with football’s Uefa Nations League paving the way. And any new competition needs time to bed in, so we may not know if the Nations Championship works until midway through the next decade.
Can it truly have the “power to alter the sport’s trajectory and usher in a new era of sustained growth”, as claimed by the Nations Championship co-chair Ronan Dunne? Or, like those many smaller trophies, will it all feel a little secondary to the more traditional prizes on offer? Time will tell.
Answers
Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy?
France v Italy, since 2006
James Bevan Trophy?
Wales v Australia, since 2007
Prince William Cup?
Wales v South Africa, since 2007
Admiral Brown Trophy?
Ireland v Argentina, since 2012
The new seasons
2025
Six Nations Feb to mid-March
Champions Cup final May
PREM final, URC final, Top 14 final June
Summer Tests July
Rugby Championship Aug-Oct
Autumn Tests Nov
2026
Six Nations Feb to mid-March
Champions Cup final May
PREM final, URC final, Super Rugby final, Top 14 final June
Southern Hemisphere Series of Nations Championship, Rounds 1-3 Early-mid July
New Zealand tour South Africa, Greatest Rivalry Aug-Sep
Unconfirmed Tests between Argentina, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand October
Northern Hemisphere Series of Nations Championship, Rounds 4-6 Early-mid November
Nations Championship Finals weekend in London November
2027
Six Nations Feb to mid-March
Champions Cup final May
PREM final, URC final, Super Rugby final, Top 14 final June
Rugby Championship July-Aug
Rugby World Cup warm-ups (unconfirmed) Aug-Sep
2027 Men’s Rugby World Cup in Australia Oct-Nov
Photograph by Dan Mullan - RFU/The RFU Collection via Getty Images