North v South - the Nations Championship explained

A new global competition has been added to the international rugby calendar with the Nations Championship kicking off this weekend as 12 teams set their sights on two trophies.

Billed as the North v South tournament, six teams from both hemispheres will go head to head next month. All 12 teams will play three fixtures in the Southern Hemisphere in July and a further three in the Northern Hemisphere in November.

This means many of the Six Nations sides headed south at the weekend in preparation for their opening fixtures.

For home nations sides involving Exeter Chiefs players, England will play South Africa at Ellis Park in Johannesburg this Saturday (KO 16:10 BST), with Wales hosting Fiji at Cardiff City Stadium (KO 14:10 BST), and Italy heading to Japan for a 09:40 (BST) kick-off at the Tokyo Chichibunomiya Stadium.

England will fly back to home soil to take on Fiji at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool the following Saturday with their final fixture being played against Argentina at the Estadio Unico Madre de Ciudades.

Wales play Argentina the following weekend before heading to Durban to play South Africa.

Italy’s second fixture will see them take on the All Blacks in Wellington before hopping over to Australia to play the Tom Hooper and Len Ikitau’s Wallabies in Perth.

The remaining fixtures will see Southern Hemisphere teams travel North in November. For example, England will play the All Blacks, Australia and Japan at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, in autumn.

Teams will earn four points for a win, two for a draw. Bonus points will be awarded for losing by seven points or fewer and scoring four tries.

After the six rounds, the pools will be locked down and the teams will face the equivalent team from the rival table, so 1st place will play 1st place and so on during a finals weekend that will see double-headers played across one weekend in Twickenham. Points will be available from each game to determine the winning hemisphere while the champion nation will be crowned on the culmination of the 1st v 1st match.

Rugby fans will in the UK will be able to follow the action on ITV.