Overview
- Organisers revealed the Hemisphere Shield on Tuesday as a new trophy to be awarded to the hemisphere that earns the most points across Finals Weekend fixtures.
- The Shield will be decided by six north-versus-south matches at Allianz Stadium in London in November, with seven points available and the first hemisphere to four points winning the prize.
- Under the announced scoring, matches ranked 2v2 through 6v6 are worth one point each and the 1v1 showdown is worth two points, with extra time and tie procedures specified for deadlocks.
- The hemispheres enter the Northern Series phase tied at nine wins apiece after July’s Southern Series, and the remaining Northern rounds will set the matchups that feed into the Finals Weekend pairing system.
- SANZAAR and Six Nations executives endorsed the idea as a way to boost fan engagement and global profile, with SANZAAR signalling strong support for Southern teams and organisers positioning the Shield as complementary to the main Nations Championship Trophy.