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2020 Rugby Championship

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Date8 August 2020 – 27 September 2020
Countries Argentina
 Australia
 New Zealand
 South Africa
Tournament statistics
Matches played12
← 2019
2021 →

The 2020 Rugby Championship is the ninth edition of the annual southern hemisphere Rugby Championship, featuring Argentina, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. The competition is operated by SANZAAR, a joint venture of the four countries' national unions.

The tournament schedule has been elongated back to the usual format of 6 rounds over 8 weeks, with 12 matches in total.

South Africa are the defending champions entering this year's Championship, claiming their fourth title (their first since the inception of the Rugby Championship) and their first Southern Hemisphere title since 2009, in 2019.[1] They became the third team to claim the expanded Southern Hemisphere championship, following New Zealand and Australia.[2]

Background

The tournament is operated by SANZAAR and known for sponsorship reasons as The Castle Rugby Championship in South Africa, The Investec Rugby Championship in New Zealand, The Mitsubishi Estate Rugby Championship in Australia, and The Personal Rugby Championship in Argentina.

The format for the 2020 tournament returns to the previous Championship format that changed in 2017, after the shortening of the 2019 Edition due to the World Cup. Each side plays the others once at home, and once away, giving a total of six matches each, and twelve in total. A win earns a team four league points, a draw two league points, and a loss by eight or more points zero league points. A bonus point is earned in one of two ways: by scoring at least three tries more than the opponent in a match, or by losing within seven points. The competition winner is the side with the most points at the end of the tournament.[3]

The dates and venues for the 2020 tournament were confirmed on February 4, with South Africa being the final nation to announce their home Tests for the first half of the international season.[4] New Zealand Rugby,[5] the Argentine Rugby Union,[6] and Rugby Australia[7] announced their Test schedules for the 2020 Rugby Championship on December 2 2019, January 8 and January 30 respectively.

Other cups

The Bledisloe Cup, Mandela Challenge Plate, Freedom Cup and the Puma Trophy are contested annually during the Rugby Championship by select teams.

The Bledisloe Cup is decided in two home-and-away legs, with an additional leg in non-World Cup years, as is the case in 2020. After the end of the Rugby Championship, New Zealand and Australia will play the Bledisloe Cup decider at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane on October 17 at the conclusion of Rugby Championship.[7]

Unlike the Bledisloe Cup, the Mandela Challenge Plate (contested between Australia and South Africa), the Freedom Cup (contested between New Zealand and South Africa) and the Puma Trophy (Argentina and Australia) are not decided by a third match. The teams play each other twice during the Rugby Championship (but only once in Rugby World Cup years), and the challengers are required to beat the holders in both games to win the plate or trophy.[8]

Overview

The 2020 Rugby Championship is touted to be a particularly exciting edition, with multiple elements of unknown that have come about as a result of many changes within the national setups,[9][10][11] as is often the case in a year post-World Cup. 2020 sees the mix of the newly crowned World Champions and World No. 1 ranked Springboks along with the outgoing World Champions and current World No. 2 ranked All Blacks, an expected resurgent Wallabies (World Ranking of 6th) and a Los Pumas side (ranked 11th) looking to build on their 2019 exploits and preceding 2020 Super Rugby season, all clashing heads.

A magnitude of senior players retired from International duty from all four of the sides at the conclusion of the 2019 season and new Head Coaches were appointed, including majoritively-new coaching setups, at the All Blacks,[12] Wallabies[13] and Springboks.[11] The Rugby Championship will be the first testing ground between the four teams since their respective changes and the second round of International Rugby for them all after the July Internationals.

Table

[14][15][16]

Place Nation Games Points Try
Bonus 		Losing
Bonus 		Table
points
Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Diff
1  Argentina 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2  Australia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3  New Zealand 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4  South Africa 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Results

Round 1

8 August 2020[7]
TBD AEST (UTC+10)
Australia v New Zealand
Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
8 August 2020[4]
TBD SAST (UTC+2)
South Africa v Argentina
Ellis Park, Johannesburg

Round 2

15 August 2020[5]
TBD NZST (UTC+12)
New Zealand v Australia
Sky Stadium, Wellington
15 August 2020[6]
TBD ART (UTC-3)
Argentina v South Africa
Estadio San Juan del Bicentenario, San Juan

Round 3

29 August 2020[5]
TBD NZST (UTC+12)
New Zealand v Argentina
FMG Stadium Waiakto, Hamilton
29 August 2020[7]
TBD AWST (UTC+8)
Australia v South Africa
Optus Stadium, Perth

Round 4

5 September 2020[5]
TBD NZST (UTC+12)
New Zealand v South Africa
Eden Park, Auckland
5 September 2020[7]
TBD AEST (UTC+10)
Australia v Argentina
McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle

Round 5

19 September 2020[4]
TBD SAST (UTC+2)
South Africa v Australia
Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria
19 September 2020[6]
TBD ART (UTC-3)
Argentina v New Zealand
Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza

Round 6

26 September 2020[4]
TBD SAST (UTC+2)
South Africa v New Zealand
Mbombela Stadium, Mbombela
26 September 2020[6]
TBD ART (UTC-3)
Argentina v Australia
José Amalfitani Stadium, Buenos Aires

Statistics

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