The 2019 Rugby Championship is the eighth edition of the expanded 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 tournaments schedule is similar to that of the 2015 edition, being shortened due to the annual mid-year internationals and the World Cup.
New Zealand are the three-time back-to-back defending champions.
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 2019 tournament retained the previous Championship format that has remained unchanged since 2017. Because of the shortened fixture, Australia and Argentina will each play two home matches out of the three matches to be played in total. New Zealand and South Africa will have one home fixture. A win earned a team four league points, a draw two league points, and a loss by eight or more points zero league points. A bonus point was 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 was the side with the most points at the end of the tournament
| Place | Nation | Games | Points | Try Bonus |
Losing Bonus |
Table points |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For | Against | Diff | |||||
| 1 |  |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 17 | +18 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| 2 |  |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 16 | +4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 3 |  |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 20 | -4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 |  |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 35 | -18 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Fixtures
Round 1
|
20 July 2019
17:05 SAST (UTC+2) |
|
35–17 | |
|---|---|---|
Try: H. Jantjies  10′ c, 61′ cDe Jager 23′ cNkosi 55′ cReinach 80′ cCon: E. Jantjies (5/5) 11′, 24′, 56′, 63′, 83′ |
Report | Try: Haylett-Petty 28′ Foley 70′ cCon: Foley (2/2) 30′, 71′ Pen: Foley (1/1) 16′ |
|
Ellis Park, Johannesburg
Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand) |
|
20 July 2019
15:05 AST (UTC–03) |
|
16–20 | |
|---|---|---|
| Try: Boffelli 46′ c Con: N. Sánchez (1/1) 47′ Pen: N. Sánchez (2/2) 1′, 20′ Boffelli (1/1) 6′ |
Report | Try: Laumape 17′ c Retallick 38′ cCon: B. Barrett (2/2) 18′, 39′ Pen: B. Barrett (2/2) 22′, 36′ |
|
Estadio Vélez Sarsfield, Buenos Aires
Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia) |
Round 2
|
27 July 2019
19:35 NZST (UTC+12) |
|
v | |
|---|---|---|
|
Westpac Stadium, Wellington
Referee: Nic Berry (Australia) |
|
27 July 2019
19:45 AEST (UTC+10) |
|
v | |
|---|---|---|
|
Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand) |
Round 3
|
10 August 2019
19:45 AEST (UTC+8) |
|
v | |
|---|---|---|
|
Optus Stadium, Perth
Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France) |
|
10 August 2019
16:40 AST (UTC–3) |
|
v | |
|---|---|---|
|
Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena, Salta
Referee: Romain Poite (France) |
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