The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks, is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jerseys with white shorts. Their emblem is a native antelope, the Springbok, which is the national animal of South Africa. The team has been representing South African Rugby Union in international rugby union since 30 July 1891, when they played their first test match against a British Isles touring team. They are currently the reigning World Champions and have won the World Cup on four occasions, the most of any nation. They are also the second nation to win the World Cup consecutively.
The Australia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against the touring British Isles team.
Australian rules football in New Zealand is notable as the first colony outside of Australia to take up the sport as early as the 1860s and was home to the first club formed outside Australia in 1876. The sport's official name was changed in 1890 to Australasian Football acknowledge New Zealand's participation and remained for some time even after the country was expelled from the Australasian Football Council. After a half century hiatus of organised competition, it has grown rapidly as an amateur sport. Today five of New Zealand's sixteen regions have organised competitions: Auckland ; Canterbury ; Wellington ; Waikato and Otago. A four-team national competition with a national draft has been contested at the North Harbour Stadium in Auckland since 2016 for men and 2019 for women. The national team were crowned International champions at the 2005 Australian Football International Cup and competed annually against the AFL Academy between 2012 and 2019. Since the 2010s the game has also grown at junior level among New Zealand schools as the "Hawks Cup".
Rugby union has been played in New Zealand since 1870 and is the most popular sport in the country as well as being its national sport.
Fabian Joseph Charles McCarthy was an Australian rugby union footballer who played for GPS and Toowoomba, represented Queensland at a state level, and the Wallabies at an international level.
Quade Santini Cooper is a professional rugby union player and occasional boxer. Although born in New Zealand, he has represented Australia in rugby at international level. He currently plays for Hanazono Liners in Japan, and is a former player for the Queensland Reds and the Melbourne Rebels in the Super Rugby competition in Australia. His preferred position is fly-half.
Arthur Flowers Harding was an English-born international rugby union player who played for and captained the Wales national team. Often called 'Boxer' Harding, he was a member of the Wales team for the famous Match of the Century, who beat the 1905 touring All Blacks in a game considered one of the greatest in the history of rugby union. He played club rugby for Cardiff and London Welsh and county rugby for Middlesex.
The first clash in Rugby Union between Australia and New Zealand took place in a test match on 15 August 1903 in Sydney, New South Wales. On that occasion, New Zealand won 22–3.
The 1908–09 Australia rugby union tour of the British Isles was a collection of friendly rugby union games undertaken by the Australia national rugby union team against invitational and national teams from England and Wales, as well as several games against sides from North America. This was the first Australian tour of the Northern Hemisphere and the side is sometimes referred to as the "First Wallabies".
The 1899 British Isles tour to Australia was the fourth rugby union tour by a British Isles team and the second to Australia; though the first tour in 1888 was a private venture, making the 1899 tour the first official undertaking of Australia. It is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950.
Stan Wickham was a pioneer Australian rugby union player, a state and national representative centre who captained the Australian national side on a number of occasions in the early 1900s. He was tour captain for the inaugural Wallaby overseas tour, that to New Zealand in 1905.
The 1910 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand was the first international tour of the Great Britain national rugby league team, "The Lions". They played the second ever Ashes series against Australia, and their first as the visiting team, before travelling to Auckland to take on New Zealand. The tour was a huge promotional and financial success for what was then known as the "Northern Union" game and helped set the pattern for regular, alternating test match series between Britain and Australia. It is regarded as one of the most important events in the history of rugby league.
The 1925 Waratahs tour of New Zealand was a series of rugby union games undertaken by the New South Wales Teams against invitational and national teams of New Zealand.
The 1894 New South Wales tour of New Zealand was a rugby union tour of New Zealand undertaken by the New South Wales (NSW) representative side. During the tour NSW played matches against provincial New Zealand sides, and one against a representative New Zealand team.
The 1913 Australia rugby union tour of New Zealand was a collection of friendly rugby union games undertaken by the Australia national rugby union team against various invitational teams from New Zealand and also against the New Zealand national team.
The 1972 Australia rugby union tour of New Zealand and Fiji was a series of thirteen rugby union matches, including three tests, played by the Wallabies in New Zealand, plus a one-off test match played by the Wallabies against the Fijians in Fiji. The tour took place in August and September 1972.
Rugby union has a long history in New Zealand. Today, New Zealand holds tier one status with World Rugby.
Rugby union in Western Australia describes the sport of rugby union being played and watched in the state of Western Australia. First introduced some time in 1868 it was the most popular football code until it was overtaken by Australian rules football in Western Australia in 1885. After a period of decline and recess between 1905 and 1927 it grew throughout the 20th century. The governing body is the Western Australia Rugby Union (RugbyWA).
The History of the South Africa national rugby union team dates back to 1891, when the British Lions first toured South Africa where they played against South African representative sides. The South Africa national rugby union team played few international matches during a period of international sanctions due to apartheid. Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa has once again fully participated in international rugby.
Albert "Doolan" Joseph Downing was a New Zealand international rugby union player, capped 26 times at lock between 1913 and 1914. He was born in Napier, and began his playing career for Napier Marist in 1909, from which he was selected for Hawke's Bay and for the North Island. He moved at the end of 1912 to Auckland and there joined Auckland Marist, where he was the club's first All Black, playing his debut match against a touring Australian team in 1913. He was selected for the highly successful tour of North America in 1913, playing in 14 of the 16 matches and scoring 6 tries.
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