2020 Rugby Championship
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.
| Date | 7 November 2020 – 12 December 2020 |
|---|---|
| Countries |  .svg.png){kind=small}   |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 12 |
← 2019 2021 → | |
The tournament schedule was due to be elongated back to the usual format of 6 rounds over 8 weeks, with 12 matches in total. However, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic the tournament will be held later in the year and at the reduced timeframe. All matches will be held in New Zealand.[1]
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.[2] They became the third team to claim the expanded Southern Hemisphere championship, following New Zealand and Australia.[3]
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.[4]
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.[5] New Zealand Rugby,[6] the Argentine Rugby Union,[7] and Rugby Australia[8] announced their Test schedules for the 2020 Rugby Championship on December 2 2019, January 8 and January 30 respectively.
The global Covid-19 pandemic has caused disruption to the previously agreed calendar, and has been mooted that all matches may be played in New Zealand instead.[9]
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.[8]
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.[10]
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,[11][12][13] 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,[14] Wallabies[15] and Springboks.[13] 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
| Place | Nation | Games | Points | Try Bonus |
Losing Bonus |
Table points | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For | Against | Diff | |||||
| 1 | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |