Rugby Championship

The Rugby Championship schedule will see the All Blacks play South Africa at Mt Smart Stadium on 15 July.

The second game is a Bledisloe Cup clash against Australia in Dunedin. It is the first time since 2017 that the Bledisloe Cup has been to the city and will be a rare afternoon home Test match at Forsyth Barr Stadium on 5 August.

New Zealand open the Rugby Championship on the road against Argentina in Medonza on 8 July and have another game against South Africa at London's Twickenham Stadium on 25 August.

The All Blacks 35-23 win over the Springboks at Ellis Park has resulted them in overtaking England for fourth spot.

Ireland remain number one from France and South Africa.

The Wallabies record 48-17 loss to Argentina has resulted in them dropping another spot.

Dave Rennie's men were soundly beaten on the day and saw them tie their lowest ever ranking as Scotland leapfrogged the Wallabies, who lost 1.65 rankings points in San Juan.

Despite their impressive win, Los Pumas remain in ninth place.

1 (1) Ireland 90.03

2 (2) France 89.41

The trial law allows a red-carded player to be replaced after 20 minutes.

This trial would be a continuation of the law trial conducted throughout Super Rugby competitions in 2020, 2021 and 2022 as well as The Rugby Championship in 2021.

SANZAAR chief executive Brendan Morris said all four national unions supported the extension.

"As a group we firmly believe the integrity of international matches is very important and that wherever possible matches must be a contest of fifteen versus fifteen."

The All Blacks are in camp in Wellington and fly out to South Africa on Friday for two tests against the world champion Springboks.

New forwards coach Jason Ryan has joined Foster's staff - after previous forwards coach John Plumtree and attack coach Brad Mooar were sacked last week.

But the pressure doesn't let up for Ian Foster.

He may have kept his job in the wake of the series loss to Ireland but a repeat effort in the Rugby Championship and he may not be so fortunate.

Foster though maintains the prospect of losing his job isn't playing on his mind.

Three years after the concept was killed off by promotion and relegation fears, the chief executives of rugby’s 10 most powerful national unions are close to agreeing the structure of a global championship to be held every two years from 2024.

Kellaway's three tries took his season tally to eight, while Folau Fainga'a and Samu Kerevi also crossed to help the Wallabies rack up four successive wins for the first time in the southern hemisphere competition.

Replacement prop Thomas Gallo scored two consolation tries for the Argentines in the final quarter, but the Pumas will return home after a long and arduous tour without a win from their six matches in the championship.

The bonus-point victory ensured the Wallabies would finish second in the championship behind New Zealand.

The All Blacks are favourites going into their penultimate match of the competition in Townsville and will lift the 2021 title if they get a bonus-point against the battered and bruised Springboks, who are coming off demoralising back-to-back losses to Australia.

Certainly in the second of those defeats, by 30-17 in Brisbane on Saturday, they moved away from their tactical kicking game, but committed an unusually high number of errors and looked flustered at times.

The former Wallabies centre watched alongside nearly 40,000 fans at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday evening, marvelling as Australia again overpowered the Springboks in a 30-17 Rugby Championship win.

It backed up their 28-26 victory on the Gold Coast six days earlier and saw Wallabies jump two more spots to No.3 in the world after starting last week in seventh.

The back-to-back wins are the first for the side since 2019 and under new coach Dave Rennie, coming after a comprehensive trio of losses to New Zealand.

The bonus-point victory in front of 38,000 at Lang Park extended their lead to 10 points over second-placed South Africa in the Rugby Championship table while ending Argentina and Australia's title hopes.

South Africa, beaten 30-17 by Australia in the first match of Saturday's double-header, will need to defeat the All Blacks twice and pile on the tries in their last two matches to earn bonus points to have any hope of stealing the silverware.

The world champion Springboks will be seething after Quade Cooper’s long-range penalty after the siren sunk them in a 28-26 loss on Sunday.

They’ll meet again inside a week at Suncorp Stadium, where the Wallabies have won their last eight tests.

Nursing a shin injury, McDermott remained off after the break on Sunday and White made the most of his extra time on the park.

He kicked a 50-22 early in the second half and then forced the decisive penalty after Australia had turned over a scrum just seconds before fulltime.