SA Rugby announced on Friday the venues for the opening three home games of the new-look competition, where 12 countries play a series of home and away games in July and then in November.
South Africa’s first fixture will be at Ellis Park, where on England’s last visit in June 2018, the Boks came from a 21-point deficit to snatch a narrow 42-39 win. The thin air on the Highveld, where the elevation is some 1,750m, is usually taxing for visiting teams.
Next year’s clash will be on 4 July, followed a week later by a second Nations Championship game against Scotland at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, where South Africa have never previously hosted the Scots.
The third home game will be on 18 July against Wales at Kings Park in Durban. The Springboks beat Wales 73-0 in Cardiff last weekend at the end of an unbeaten five-match European tour.
During the November window of the Nations Championship, the Boks will be back in Europe to face Italy (weekend of 6-8 November), France (weekend of 13-15 November), and Ireland (21 November) to complete their fixtures against all Six Nations teams.
This will be followed by the Nations Championship finals weekend, scheduled for 27-29 November at Twickenham in London.
South Africa have already confirmed venues for three of their four tests against the touring All Blacks next year.
The first is on Saturday, 22 August, at Ellis Park, with the second seven days later in Cape Town. The third on 5 September will be at Soccer City in Johannesburg, where the capacity is 94,000 and where soccer's 2010 World Cup final was played. The fourth test, a week later, is scheduled to be played at a neutral venue.