Greenfield Roots: Rugby Championship (by Agustín Barosio)

The rugby championship is an annual competition among South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina. The competition is organized by Sanzar, a consortium formed by the Australian Rugby Union, the South African Rugby Union and the New Zealand Rugby Union.

The order of fixtures has changed several times in the history of the series. In the past, each team played the others twice. After some tweaking of the schedule, it was decided to start the series with two fixtures in either South Africa or New Zealand and move the series to the country that did not host the opening rounds. Under this setup Australia's home fixtures were always the middle two in the series.

The recent reworking of the calendar took effect with the 2006 event. This was the result of a new television deal between Sanzar and broadcasters in the United Kingdom and the Sanzar countries. Each team plays the other three times. In 2006 the series opened in New Zealand and the first four rounds alternated between New Zealand and Australia. The fifth round was in Australia. After a one-week break the series returned to New Zealand and then finished with South Africa's three home fixtures. Each team has two home fixtures against one team and only one home fixture against the other.

The competition begins in July. Originally it had started late in July but, with the expansion of the series, the start date has moved to early in the month. It typically ends early in September. The Tri Nations opens after the completion of the Super Rugby competition for the year because players from the Sanzar countries are involved in both.

The winner is determined by a points system:

4 points for a win
2 points for a draw
0 points for a loss

I think Argentina will not win the rugby championship because Argentinian rugby has not as much competition as New Zealand, Australian or South African rugby but, in a few years, Argentina could be as good as New Zealand'a or the other teams'.