England to Open Nations Championship vs South Africa

England will begin their Nations Championship campaign on July 4 with a World Cup final rematch against South Africa in Johannesburg. Steve Borthwick's side face the reigning world champions in their opening match before travelling on to play Fiji and Argentina during the southern hemisphere summer.

The extended summer schedule also features a number of heavyweight clashes: France meet New Zealand in Christchurch in their first outing since winning the Six Nations, while the Springboks have matches against Wales and Scotland. Ireland play Australia and Japan in the summer before heading to Auckland for a mouth-watering showdown with New Zealand. Scotland and Wales each have southern hemisphere ties with Argentina and Fiji respectively.

The three summer game weeks form the first part of the Nations Championship. The competition resumes in November with the northern hemisphere block, hosted largely at Twickenham, where England are set to face New Zealand, Australia and Japan. After the six gameweeks, a finals weekend at Twickenham will pair teams against their counterparts from the other hemisphere. The series concludes on November 29 with the first-placed northern hemisphere side meeting the first-placed southern hemisphere side. A Ryder Cup-style points system will determine the winner of the hemisphere trophies.

Wales v Australia; 20:10 GMT

Finals weekend (Twickenham)

First-placed northern v First-placed southern; 16:40 GMT

The schedule sets up a summer of demanding trips for northern hemisphere teams and offers a string of high-profile collisions between the world’s leading sides ahead of the November return leg and the finals weekend.