{"id":44216,"date":"2026-06-30T05:30:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/rugby-union-weekly-nations-championship-good-for-the-game\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T05:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:30:36","slug":"rugby-union-weekly-nations-championship-good-for-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/rugby-union-weekly-nations-championship-good-for-the-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby Union Weekly &#8211; Nations Championship: Good for the game?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">Available for over a year<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-whitespace-pre-line sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">The inaugural Nation&#8217;s Championship is here, but are fans actually excited about it? Do they even understand the format? Chris, Danny and Ashy dig into the new competition, the logistical nightmare facing travelling supporters and the huge challenge for players playing back-to-back matches in different continents. Rassie Erasmus has already named his team to face England this weekend, does this help with Steve Borthwick&#8217;s selection dilemmas? Will Henry Pollock be unleashed in Johannesburg? Is it Ben Spencer or Alex Mitchell at nine? Plus, we discuss the three things England need to do if they are to beat the Boks. Ashy shares his memories of playing South Africa at Ellis Park and Danny explains what it\u2019s like to play at altitude and how it effects players. And after Jack Willis captained Toulouse to a record-extending 25th Top 14 title, we debate whether he could ever be lured back to England and what the RFU could do to make it happen.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/p0nvt9n8\" aria-label=\"Programme Website of Nations Championship: Good for the game?\" data-testid=\"programme-website-link\" class=\"sw-group sw-inline-flex sw-items-center sw-pt-4\"><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-text-brevier\">Programme Website<\/span><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16px\" height=\"16px\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-transition sw-ease sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-ml-2 sw-ml-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M21.9,16.9v11.5H3.7V10.2h11.1V7.6H1V31h23.6V16.9H21.9z M18,1v2.6h10.2l-0.5-1.1L11,19l1.9,1.9L29.6,4.3l-1.2-0.5V14H31V1 H18z\"\/><\/svg><\/a><button class=\"sw-group sw-text-pica sw-block sw-w-fit sw-pt-4\"><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-mr-0.5\">Show less<\/span><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"0.75rem\" height=\"0.75rem\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-ml-1 sw-mt-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M0 18L16 0l16 18z\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/p0nvt9n8?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Available for over a year The inaugural Nation&#8217;s Championship is here, but are fans actually excited about it? Do they even understand the format? Chris, Danny and Ashy dig into the new competition, the logistical nightmare facing travelling supporters and the huge challenge for players playing back-to-back matches in different continents. Rassie Erasmus has already [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44218,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44216\/revisions\/44218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}