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Australia will play host to the 2020 Rugby Championship. The country was allocated hosting rights ahead of New Zealand. The decision was made official earlier today.
The 2020 Rugby Championship will be a 12-match tournament. It is to be played over six weeks within the World Rugby sanctioned window from November 7 to December 12.
It is scheduled to be a Four Nations competition involving Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and World Champions South Africa. There had been plans for additional teams, though Fiji will play in a unique Eight Nations competition with the Six Nations and Georgia. RWC 2019 hosts Japan, for their part, will play no rugby at all.
The 2020 Rugby Championship is to be Argentina’s only opportunity at improving on their world ranking. Due to Los Pumas’ poor showing in 2019, Argentina are ranked in Band 3 of the RWC 2019 seeding. In order to achieve a favorable pool for RWC 2023 a rise is required to at least 8th in the world. Today Argentina are 10th compared to Scotland in 8th and Japan in 9th.
Today’s Rugby Championship announcement did not confirm kick-off times, let alone actual match dates or venues. Speculation is that the matches will be played in and around Sydney.
There are plans for Australia and New Zealand to play two additional matches. The Bledisloe Cup will take place before the Rugby Championship itself. Argentina will have no such test matches. The Argentina XV will play in the South American Championship in October. They will do so with Argentine-based players who are in consideration to travel to Australia for the Rugby Championship.
