History UsefulNotes / RugbyUnion

* The '''Six Nations Championship''' -- Europe's premier national competition, currently involving the Northern Hemisphere's six top teams--England, France, Ireland,[[note]]Unlike football, in which the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland field separate national teams, the entire island has a single national team and governing body in rugby union.[[/note]] Italy, Scotland, and Wales. The event grew out of a competition informally known as the Home Nations Championship, involving the British and Irish sides only and launched in 1883. France joined in 1910, creating the Five Nations, but were kicked out after the 1931 edition. They were invited back after the 1939 edition, but World War II ended international rugby in Europe until 1947. The competition became the Six Nations with Italy's entry in 2000. The competition is held as a single round-robin--i.e., each team plays the others once. The current champions are Ireland, who won the 2023 championship with a Grand Slam, earned by defeating all 5 others in the same season. The bottom team gets the so-called 'wooden spoon', a tradition that goes back to the 1890s, if not before. These days it's usually held by Italy, but both Wales and France have held it before (once each), and it used to regularly be held by Scotland, leading to the mocking song sung by English fans, 'O spoon of Scotland...' to the tune of their national anthem.

b) Run the ball up the gut with your forwards (traditionally, the fat guys; nowadays, they generally look like they could run down a power lifter and eat them alive). Not so entertaining, but it works. This is the equivalent of the conservative "three yards and a cloud of dust" strategy for which [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball the Big Ten]] was historically famous.\\\

The Italians, meanwhile, had each of the other teams in the Six Nations regarding their match against them as a chance to rack up points and have a bit of fun. Although they defeated defending champions Scotland in their first match in the competition in 2000, they've only managed a dozen wins since, and had a record-breaking losing streak of 36 games between defeating Scotland at Murrayfield in 2015 and Wales in Cardiff in 2022. However, they have managed to notch at least one victory over every team in the competition except for England. [[note]]Rugby is also played in other European nations, although it will be a long time before Holland and Belgium are thought good enough to compete in an expanded Eight Nations contest. UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}, however, remains a country where the game is ''very'' popular, and its national side is thought of as having a lot of potential for the future. Established Six Nations sides, especially England, have visited there even in the days when Romania was a closed Communist dictatorship. Furthermore, since gaining independence from the USSR, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|Europe}} have also become very formidable, with an exceptionally strong forward pack that even the All Blacks have struggled against. And UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} are developing a national training strategy that if it pays off, well, all bets are off. And that's not counting Spain's and Portugal's long playing traditions. (In the 2023 World Cup, Portugal came out quite well all things considered, beating Fiji by one point, drawing with Georgia and losing to both Wales and Australia by "only" twenty points each, which was much narrower than many other Tier One versus Tier Two matches in the tournament).[[/note]]

** '''WXV''' – Launching in 2023 (delayed from 2021... guess why), this three-tiered competition, which lacks a men's counterpart, is being held annually except in (women's) World Cup years. The top level, WXV 1, initially features the top three teams from both the 2023 Women's Six Nations and 2023 Pacific Four Series. WXV 2 begins with the fourth-place teams from the 2023 6N and P4, the winner of a playoff between the 5th-place 6N side and the champion of WR's European zone (non-6N teams), and the champions of WR's African, Asian, and Oceanian (non-P4) zones. WXV 3 starts with the bottom team of the 2023 6N, the loser of the WXV 2 qualifying playoff, the champion of WR's South American zone, and the African, Asian, and Oceanian runners-up. There will be promotion and relegation between all three levels.

Starting with the 2022–23 competition, teams from South Africa have been incorporated into the European club competitions. At least one SA side will qualify from the United Rugby Championship, with more possible.

* '''United Rugby Championship''' - formerly (and in some quarters unofficially still) known as the Celtic League,[[note]](the company that runs the competition is still legally known as "Celtic Rugby")[[/note]] as [=Pro12=] before 2017, and then [=Pro14=] through the 2020–21 season, this is a curious beast by domestic rugby standards, involving an international domestic competition at the level below the ERCC. Since the 2021–22 season, its first under its new name, it consists of 4 teams from Ireland ([[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles including Ulster which overlaps with Northern Ireland]]), 4 from Wales, 2 from Scotland, 2 from Italy (who were just happy to be invited), and 4 from South Africa. Played to the same general structure as the Gallagher Premiership, it has higher viewing figures thanks to being played across a less concentrated population. The standard of rugby, at least among the top teams, is very high and several teams who contest the URC have gone on to become famous European champions. In particular the Irish provinces (it's a local thing) of Leinster and Munster enjoyed something of a golden age in the 00s, and after a decline in the first part of the 2010s are on the rise again. The other thing to note about the URC is that it doesn't have promotion or relegation, meaning teams are free to play in a more carefree, Southern Hemisphere-esque fashion than they are in the Gallagher Premiership or Top 14. The reigning champions are Munster.

The 2021–22 season, the first under the URC name, divided the 16 sides into four "pods"—Irish, Italian–Scottish, South African and Welsh—though classified in a single league table. Each team plays home and away against sides within its pod, plus single matches against all other sides, resulting in a 18-round league season. The top eight teams on the league table advance to knockout playoffs, with higher seeds hosting except for the final at a predetermined venue. The top team from each pod, plus the four top teams on the league table not already qualified, qualify for the next season's Champions Cup. This includes South Africa, which now participates fully in European club competitions. Each pod also awards a "Shield" to the side that finishes atop the pod in the regular season; in 2023, Leinster won the Irish Shield, Glasgow Warriors the Italian–Scottish Shield, Stormers the South African Shield, and Cardiff won the Welsh Shield.

The differences between both versions of Rugby and UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball are much greater: players wear little, body armour beyond a gum shield and an optional scrum-cap (foam padding is allowed), and play continues without interruption and time-outs for much longer. Also, no forward passing under any circumstances, you're not allowed to tackle someone not holding the ball and to get the points for a try (think touchdown) you must be holding onto the ball when it is placed onto the ground. (There have been numerous instances of amateur players forgetting about this and spiking the ball.) This applies to both codes, which tend to share a disdain for the perceived softness of American Football and delight in mocking it to that end. [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Rupert Giles]] sums it up by saying, with a hint of mockery, "I just think it's rather odd that a nation that prides itself on its virility should feel compelled to strap on forty pounds of protective gear just in order to play rugby."

The Italians, meanwhile, had each of the other teams in the Six Nations regarding their match against them as a chance to rack up points and have a bit of fun. Although they defeated defending champions Scotland in their first match in the competition in 2000, they've only managed a dozen wins since, and had a record-breaking losing streak of 36 games between defeating Scotland at Murrayfield in 2015 and Wales in Cardiff in 2022. However, they have managed to notch at least one victory over every team in the competition except for England. [[note]]Rugby is also played in other European nations, although it will be a long time before Holland and Belgium are thought good enough to compete in an expanded Eight Nations contest. UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}, however, remains a country where the game is ''very'' popular, and its national side is thought of as having a lot of potential for the future. Established Six Nations sides, especially England, have visited there even in the days when Romania was a closed Communist dictatorship. Furthermore, since gaining independence from the USSR, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|Europe}} have also become very formidable, with an exceptionally strong forward pack that even the All Blacks have struggled against. And UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} are developing a national training strategy that if it pays off, well, all bets are off. And that's not counting Spain's and Portugal's long playing traditions. (In the 2023 World Cup, Portugal came out quite well all things considered, beating Fiji by one point, drawing with Georgia and losing to both Wales and Australia by "only" twenty points each, which was much narrower than many other Tier One versus Tier Two matches in the tournament.[[/note]]

The Italians, meanwhile, had each of the other teams in the Six Nations regarding their match against them as a chance to rack up points and have a bit of fun. Although they defeated defending champions Scotland in their first match in the competition in 2000, they've only managed a dozen wins since, and had a record-breaking losing streak of 36 games between defeating Scotland at Murrayfield in 2015 and Wales in Cardiff in 2022. However, they have managed to notch at least one victory over every team in the competition except for England. [[note]]Rugby is also played in other European nations, although it will be a long time before Holland and Belgium are thought good enough to compete in an expanded Eight Nations contest. UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}, however, remains a country where the game is ''very'' popular, and its national side is thought of as having a lot of potential for the future. Established Six Nations sides, especially England, have visited there even in the days when Romania was a closed Communist dictatorship. Furthermore, since gaining independence from the USSR, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|Europe}} have also become very formidable, with an exceptionally strong forward pack that even the All Blacks have struggled against. And UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} are developing a national training strategy that if it pays off, well, all bets are off. And that's not counting Spain'z and Portugal's long playing traditions. (In the 2023 World Cup, Portugal came out quite well all things considered, beating Fiji by one point, drawing with Georgia and losing to both Wales and Australia by "only" twenty points each, which was much narrower than many other Tier One versus Tier Two matches in the tournament.[[/note]]

Rugby Union is a version of football supposedly started at [[BoardingSchool Rugby School]] in Warwickshire when a player picked up the ball and ran with it. It is played in UsefulNotes/{{Britain}}, UsefulNotes/{{France}}, UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}}, UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, UsefulNotes/NewZealand, a good proportion of the south Pacific, UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica, UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}, and even (a little) in the U.S. [[note]] A bit of trivia here: the U.S. was the reigning Olympic champion in Rugby Union until 2016, having won at the 1924 Summer Olympics, since that was the last time it was an Olympic event. Arguably they are still reigning champion as the sport played in 2016 was Rugby ''Sevens'' nb.(Almost) the same rules (occasionally there is an attempt to enliven the game by introducing an American-style two-point conversion which never ends up being adopted), just with half the players in a quarter of the time.} [[/note]] which has separate championships from normal Rugby Union and even different "great powers" - reigning Olympic Champion Fiji being a big name in Sevens but no match for New Zealand in fifteen on fifteen Rugby Union. However, Rugby Sevens, a shortened form of Union returned to the Olympics in 2016. Neither Fiji or Samoa had ever won an Olympic medal at any sport, and both are among the strongest sevens nations, so they were among the most ferocious competitors in Rio de Janeiro. And indeed Fiji brought home gold, endearing the world both to the plucky underdog nation and the sport's much faster paced "little cousin". And did so again in Tokyo four... [[ReleaseDateChange/COVID19PandemicRelatedExamples make that five]] years later.

The Italians, meanwhile, had each of the other teams in the Six Nations regarding their match against them as a chance to rack up points and have a bit of fun. Although they defeated defending champions Scotland in their first match in the competition in 2000, they've only managed a dozen wins since, and had a record-breaking losing streak of 36 games between defeating Scotland at Murrayfield in 2015 and Wales in Cardiff in 2022. However, they have managed to notch at least one victory over every team in the competition except for England. [[note]]Rugby is also played in other European nations, although it will be a long time before Holland and Belgium are thought good enough to compete in an expanded Eight Nations contest. UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}, however, remains a country where the game is ''very'' popular, and its national side is thought of as having a lot of potential for the future. Established Six Nations sides, especially England, have visited there even in the days when Romania was a closed Communist dictatorship. Furthermore, since gaining independence from the USSR, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|Europe}} have also become very formidable, with an exceptionally strong forward pack that even the All Blacks have struggled against. And UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} are developing a national training strategy that if it pays off, well, all bets are off. And that's not counting Spain'z and Portugal's long playing traditions. [[/note]]

Indeed, the All Blacks are unique in international sports in that they have a winning record against ''every single team'' that they have ever played.[[note]]The US women's soccer team is almost there, but Poland managed a draw in 1989 in the teams' only encounter to date. Czechoslovakia managed a draw in their only meeting in 1988, but FIFA considers the Czech Republic (aka Czechia) that country's successor for record-keeping purposes, and the USWNT has a win and a draw in the two post-Velvet Divorce matches. By the way, the only team that's even won a third of its matches against the USWNT is Norway. The US women's basketball team is also almost there, but it split its only two games against the USSR; while it's so far unbeaten in three tries against Russia, FIBA (unlike FIFA) does not consider Russia as having inherited the USSR's results.[[/note]] Consequently, it has historically been considered a major achievement for any of the Northern Hemisphere superpowers (England, France, Ireland and Wales) to even run the All Blacks close: France have won the most encounters with New Zealand with 13 from 62. England have won 8 from 43 and Wales 3 from 37 (and they haven't won since 1953...). However, despite taking until their 29th attempt in 2016 (in, of all places, ''UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}'') to record a win over the All Blacks, Ireland have become a significant recent rival for them, winning 5 of their last 9 encounters, including a 2-1 Test Series victory in New Zealand in 2022. New Zealand's closest competitors, the Springboks of South Africa, have a record of 40–62, plus four draws. The next-closest, Australia's Wallabies, have a record of 45–124, plus eight draws. However, these records reflect the entire history of said countries in the sport. In the professional era (since August 1995), the Boks are 19–44 with one draw against the All Blacks,[[note]]which means that before the sport went pro, it was ''South Africa'' that had the upper hand on the [=ABs=]![[/note]] and the Wallabies are 18–56 with two draws. It should be noted that both the Boks and Wallabies are nearly as invincible for other teams that aren't New Zealand, with only England, Ireland, Wales, and France (the latter two on their better days) generally giving them a contest. The Boks can't manage a 40% win rate against New Zealand, and the Wallabies can't even get to 33%.

* The '''Rugby World Cup''' — Held every four years in the year before the Summer Olympics, this is the sport's highest prize for national teams. The victors receive the Webb Ellis Trophy, named for William Webb Ellis, apocryphally credited with creating the game. Due to the same quirks of history which resulted in the game going professional only in 1995, almost a century after it was created, the Rugby World Cup has only been running since the 1980s. However, with the primacy placed on international competition in the sport, it has already become the grandest stage on which to perform in all of rugby union. South Africa are the two-time reigning champions, winning in 2019 in Japan and 2023 in France.

These teams can also be divided based on which hemisphere they are found in, as this determines which transnational competitions they compete in. In the Northern Hemisphere, these are England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales. In the Southern Hemisphere, they consist of Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Note that, with the curious exceptions of Italy, France and Argentina, all of these nations were once part of the British Commonwealth, which is how the game was popularised there. And Argentina really isn't that large of an exception—British expats, who played a major role in Argentina's industrial development, brought the sport, among many others (Newell's Old Boys anyone?), to the country in the 1870s.

Indeed, the All Blacks are unique in international sports in that they have a winning record against ''every single team'' that they have ever played.[[note]]The US women's soccer team is almost there, but Poland managed a draw in 1989 in the teams' only encounter to date. Czechoslovakia managed a draw in their only meeting in 1988, but FIFA considers the Czech Republic (aka Czechia) that country's successor for record-keeping purposes, and the USWNT has a win and a draw in the two post-Velvet Divorce matches. By the way, the only team that's even won a third of its matches against the USWNT is Norway. The US women's basketball team is also almost there, but it split its only two games against the USSR; while it's so far unbeaten in three tries against Russia, FIBA (unlike FIFA) does not consider Russia as having inherited the USSR's results.[[/note]] Consequently, it has historically been considered a major achievement for any of the Northern Hemisphere superpowers (England, France, Ireland and Wales) to even run the All Blacks close: France have won the most encounters with New Zealand with 13 from 62. England have won 8 from 43 and Wales 3 from 37 (and they haven't won since 1953...). However, despite taking until their 29th attempt in 2016 (in, of all places, ''UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}'') to record a win over the All Blacks, Ireland have become a significant recent rival for them, winning 5 of their last 8 encounters, including a 2-1 Test Series victory in New Zealand in 2022. New Zealand's closest competitors, the Springboks of South Africa, have a record of 38–62, plus four draws. The next-closest, Australia's Wallabies, have a record of 45–122, plus eight draws. However, these records reflect the entire history of said countries in the sport. In the professional era (since August 1995), the Boks are 17–44 with one draw against the All Blacks,[[note]]which means that before the sport went pro, it was ''South Africa'' that had the upper hand on the [=ABs=]![[/note]] and the Wallabies are 18–54 with two draws. It should be noted that both the Boks and Wallabies are nearly as invincible for other teams that aren't New Zealand, with only England, Ireland, Wales, and France (the latter two on their better days) generally giving them a contest. The Boks can't manage a 40% win rate against New Zealand, and the Wallabies can't even get to 33%.

* The '''Rugby World Cup''' — Held every four years in the year before the Summer Olympics, this is the sport's highest prize for national teams. The victors receive the Webb Ellis Trophy, named for William Webb Ellis, apocryphally credited with creating the game. Due to the same quirks of history which resulted in the game going professional only in 1995, almost a century after it was created, the Rugby World Cup has only been running since the 1980s. However, with the primacy placed on international competition in the sport, it has already become the grandest stage on which to perform in all of rugby union. South Africa are the reigning champions, winning in 2019 in Japan.

* '''World Rugby Sevens Series'''[[note]]Per corporate naming and XtremeKoolLetterz, marketed as HSBC SVNS[[/note]] — An annual series of tournaments for national sevens teams conducted since 1999–2000. The current 8-tournament schedule, effective in 2023–24, features events in Dubai, South Africa (Cape Town), Australia (Perth), the US (the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California), Canada (Vancouver), Hong Kong, Singapore, and Spain (Madrid). Each season featured as many as 10 stops before COVID-19 got in the way. Each of the first seven tournaments involves 16 teams competing for two distinct trophies, plus points toward the overall series championship. Twelve of these teams are "core teams" that compete in each of the first seven events during a given season. (Before 2023–24, there were 15 core teams.) After the Singapore event, the top eight teams advance to a "Grand Final" in Madrid, and the other four core teams drop to a promotion/relegation playoff that also features top teams from World Rugby's regionalised "Challenger Series", with the top four teams from that playoff either retaining or being promoted to core status. New Zealand have traditionally dominated this series, with 14 titles in all, most recently in 2022–23. The other nations to have won are Fiji and South Africa with four each, plus Australia and Samoa with one each.

* '''Gallagher Premiership''' - the English domestic competition. 10 teams from around the country compete every year across 18 regular season games (playing each opponent once at home and once away), two semi-finals and one grand final, played out at the home of English rugby, Twickenham Stadium. As recently as the start of the 2022–23 season, 12 teams were featured, but Wasps went into administration in midseason and were suspended from the competition before being administratively relegated, and London Irish were relegated after the season following their own entry into administration. Very much plays second fiddle to the Top 14 in terms of revenue and even the United Rugby Championship in terms of viewership, but despite this the Gallagher Premiership is one of the top leagues in the world and is slowly gaining pace and success. In particular, the standard of rugby played in the Premiership is generally considered, currently at least, to be higher than the URC (though that may change with South Africa now fully involved) and more interesting than the Top 14, and the increase in commercial success is starting to mean that the best international players are increasingly being drawn to England over France (though the language issue is also likely a factor). Like the [=T14=] it operates with a promotion and relegation model, but the more amicable relationship between the English national administration and the clubs compared to the situation in France and the less frenzied financial pressures mean that teams are not quite as risk-averse. The reigning champions are the North London side Saracens.

* '''National Provincial Championship''' - New Zealand's premier entirely domestic competition, and thus arguably the highest quality (on average at least) rugby competition in the world. Now having reverted to its original name, though currently with name sponsorship by Aussie hardware chain Bunnings (which also operates in NZ), it is however not particularly well-known outside of rugby mad New Zealand, for the simple reason that Super Rugby is generally treated as the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the domestic competitions listed above. All the same if your primary concern is watching the highest consistent levels of skill on a regular basis the NPC is probably where you should look. It operated with a promotion and relegation structure from 2011 through 2021, returning to a single division in 2022, but the New Zealand rugby culture means that even in the two-division era it featured a very high number of tries scored per game, which is usually a hallmark of both high quality and teams playing with risk and abandon. The NPC also functions, like all domestic competitions, as the pipeline for the next generation of rugby talent, so it provides an opportunity to see up-and-coming All Blacks as they first arrive on the scene - along with the current ones in fact, because the competition runs at a different time to Super Rugby and thus allows players to keep getting games in and honing their skills when normally they'd be in the off-season. The reigning champions are Wellington.

* Llamedosian Rules Fifteen-A-Side Foot-The-Ball is explored as a sub-theme in Creator/AAPessimal's tale ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12321109/33/Gap-Year-Adventures Gap Year Adventures]]''. The culture surrounding "llamedosian Rules" is viewed largely via the Springboeks, a side playing in the senior Ankh-Morpork league who are drawn from emigrants from [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica Rimwards Howondaland]]. A game between the Bokkies and the [[UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} Fourecksian Wallabies]] is discussed in detail. Other Ankh-Morpork teams mentioned are the Harlequins (Fools' Guild senior XV),[[note]]Named after a real rugby club based in London, which has played in all seasons but one of the English Premiership since it began in 1987.[[/note]] the Wasps (Guild of Assassins),[[note]]Also named after a real English rugby club, this one historically based in London, but now playing home games in Coventry, that has played in every single English Premiership season.[[/note]] the Barbarians (Young Men's Pagan Association),[[note]]There is a real rugby team called the Barbarians, who are an invitation-only international team who play exhibition matches against various other clubs and international sides[[/note]] and a representative team from [[UsefulNotes/NewZealand the Foggy Islands]] that plays all in black. The sort of rousing songs players might give voice to are also discussed. One little ditty about Auntie Tina is quoted, with hand-gestures to get the point across to those who cannot speak Vondalaans. [[note]]A Discworld language not unlike Afrikaans.[[/note]]

* '''World Rugby Sevens Series'''[[note]]Per corporate naming and XtremeKoolLetterz, marketed as HSBC SVNS[[/note]] — An annual series of tournaments for national sevens teams conducted since 1999–2000. The current 8-tournament schedule, effective in 2023–24, features events in Dubai, South Africa (Cape Town), Australia (Perth), the US (the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California), Canada (Vancouver), Hong Kong, Singapore, and Spain (Madrid). Each season featured as many as 10 stops before COVID-19 got in the way. Each of the first seven tournaments involves 16 teams competing for two distinct trophies, plus points toward the overall series championship. Twelve of these teams are "core teams" that compete in each of the first seven events during a given season. (Before 2023–24, there were 15 core teams.) After the Singapore event, the top eight teams advance to a "Grand Final" in Madrid, and the other four core teams drop to a promotion/relegation playoff that also features top teams from World Rugby's regionalised "Challenger Series", with the top four teams from that playoff either retaining or being promoted to core status. New Zealand have traditionally dominated this series, with 14 titles in all, most recently in in 2022–23. The other nations to have won are Fiji and South Africa with four each, plus Australia and Samoa with one each.

* '''World Rugby Sevens Series'''[[note]]Per corporate naming and XtremeKoolLetterz, marketed as HSBC SVNS[[/note]] — An annual series of tournaments for national sevens teams conducted since 1999–2000. The current 8-tournament schedule, effective in 2023–24, features events in Dubai, South Africa (Cape Town), Australia (Perth), the US (the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California), Canada (Vancouver), Hong Kong, Singapore, and Spain (Madrid). Each season featured as many as 10 stops before COVID-19 got in the way. Each of the first seven tournaments involves 16 teams competing for two distinct trophies, plus points toward the overall series championship. Twelve of these teams are "core teams" that compete in each of the first seven events during a given season. (Before 2023–24, there were 15 core teams.) After the Singapore event, the top eight teams advance to a "Grand Final" in Madrid, and the other four core teams drop to a promotion/relegation playoff that also features top teams from World Rugby's regionalized "Challenger Series", with the top four teams from that playoff either retaining or being promoted to core status. New Zealand have traditionally dominated this series, with 14 titles in all, with their most recent in in 2022–23. The other nations to have won are Fiji and South Africa with four each, plus Australia and Samoa with one each.

** '''Rugby World Cup''' – Historically known as the '''Women's Rugby World Cup''', but in 2019 the sport's governing body, World Rugby, officially removed gender-specific language from the name of the World Cup. First held in 1991, but outside the authority of World Rugby. WR took over sponsorship in 1998, but didn't [[{{Retcon}} officially recognise]] the 1991 and 1994 editions until ''2009''. . The 2021 edition in New Zealand was postponed to 2022 due to COVID, although still branded as the "2021" edition. It was eventually won by New Zealand, beating England in the final.

** The competition began in 2001 as strictly a Celtic affair, involving Irish provinces, Scottish super-districts, and top-level Welsh clubs. Two years later, Wales regionalised its top tier of rugby, going from nine clubs to four regions. (The clubs turned into developmental operations for the regions.) In 2010, two Italian sides were added, bringing the competition to 12 teams. Next, the two clubs that South Africa had axed from Super Rugby after its 2017 season were invited to join from the 2017–18 season forward. The league duly changed its name to [=Pro14=] at that point.[[note]]While travel issues were a potential stumbling block, South Africa provided a huge TV market relative to the Celtic nations, in a time zone amenable to live TV coverage in Europe. For most of the [=Pro14=]/URC season, South Africa is 1 hour ahead of Italy and 2 hours ahead of the UK and Ireland. Subtract 1 hour from both when Europe is on summer time, as South Africa uses year-round standard time.[[/note]] More recently, one of the two South African sides, the Southern Kings (Port Elizabeth), was liquidated in 2020 after an intended takeover bid collapsed in fraud. The Cheetahs (Bloemfontein) played in the 2020–21 season, but after that left the league. South Africa's "Big Four" Super Rugby sides—the Bulls, Lions (Johannesburg), Sharks (Durban), and Stormers—then joined. Following the 2020–21 [=Pro14=] season, the league had a swan song under its then-current identity, the [=Pro14=] Rainbow Cup. It consisted of two separate tournaments, the Rainbow Cup for the 12 European sides, and Rainbow Cup SA for the South African Big Four, followed by a final between the winners of each. European winner Benetton Treviso defeated the SA champion Bulls in the final, becoming the first Italian club team ever to win an international competition.\\

* '''National Rugby Championship''' - Australia's now-defunct equivalent to the NPC and Currie Cup. The NRC was, in contrast to most other domestic rugby competitions, very young indeed, having been established in 2014 (although there have been other similar competitions in the past). Rugby faces a unique challenge in Australia - although the only major rugby countries where it is the most popular sport are New Zealand and Wales, in most of the rest of the world it only really has to compete with UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball (and maybe Gaelic games in Ireland) for the public's affections. In Australia however, not only is rugby not the most popular national sport, not only is it not the second most popular sport, it isn't even the second most popular ''form of football''. UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball, UsefulNotes/RugbyLeague and UsefulNotes/AustralianRulesFootball are all generally more popular than rugby union, not to mention the national obsession that is UsefulNotes/{{cricket}}. As a result Aussie rugby has generally been slightly anaemic at the domestic level, fuelled mainly by intense popularity among the nation's private schools and a few local club competitions (especially in the state of New South Wales). The NRC represented the latest attempt to surpass that obstacle and raise the profile of the game among Australia's sports-mad population - before COVID-19, the jury was out on how successful that attempt was. The NRC had either eight or nine teams throughout its history; it started out with nine, but one of Sydney's three original sides went belly-up after the 2015 season. The league returned to nine teams in 2017 with the arrival of the UsefulNotes/{{Fiji}}an Drua, which joined as part of a regional initiative to improve the 15-man game in the Pacific islands.[[note]]While Fiji is an established power in sevens, it's still not consistently a match for the traditional powers in 15s.[[/note]] A second Sydney side folded just before the 2018 season, which the Drua won. The final champions in 2019 were the Western Force out of Perth; the 2020 season was scrapped due to COVID-19, and when Fox Sports lost the contract to televise Aussie domestic rugby in that year, it killed the competition entirely (being the primary funder of the league). As noted above, the Drua were [[HesBack revived]] in the retooled Super Rugby Pacific from 2022.

Indeed, the All Blacks are unique in international sports in that they have a winning record against ''every single team'' that they have ever played.[[note]]The US women's soccer team is almost there, but Poland managed a draw in 1989 in the teams' only encounter to date. Czechoslovakia managed a draw in their only meeting in 1988, but FIFA considers the Czech Republic that country's successor for record-keeping purposes, and the USWNT has a win and a draw in the two post-Velvet Divorce matches. By the way, the only team that's even won a third of its matches against the USWNT is Norway. The US women's basketball team is also almost there, but it split its only two games against the USSR; while it's so far unbeaten in three tries against Russia, FIBA (unlike FIFA) does not consider Russia as having inherited the USSR's results.[[/note]] Consequently, it has historically been considered a major achievement for any of the Northern Hemisphere superpowers (England, France, Ireland and Wales) to even run the All Blacks close: France have won the most encounters with New Zealand with 13 from 62. England have won 8 from 42 and Wales 3 from 35 (and they haven't won since 1953...). However, despite taking until their 29th attempt in 2016 (in, of all places, ''UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}'') to record a win over the All Blacks, Ireland have become a significant recent rival for them, winning 5 of their last 8 encounters, including a 2-1 Test Series victory in New Zealand in 2022. New Zealand's closest competitors, the Springboks of South Africa, have a record of 36–58, plus four draws. The next-closest, Australia's Wallabies, have a record of 50–133, plus seven draws. However, these records reflect the entire history of said countries in the sport. In the professional era (since August 1995), the Boks are 15–40 with one draw against the All Blacks,[[note]]which means that before the sport went pro, it was ''South Africa'' that had the upper hand on the [=ABs=]![[/note]] and the Wallabies are 17–47 with two draws. It should be noted that both the Boks and Wallabies are nearly as invincible for other teams that aren't New Zealand, with only England, Ireland, Wales, and France (the latter two on their better days) generally giving them a contest. The Boks can't manage a 40% win rate against New Zealand, and the Wallabies can't even get to 33%.

* The '''Six Nations Championship''' — Europe's premier national competition, currently involving the Northern Hemisphere's six top teams—England, France, Ireland,[[note]]Unlike football, in which the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland field separate national teams, the entire island has a single national team and governing body in rugby union.[[/note]] Italy, Scotland, and Wales. The event grew out of a competition informally known as the Home Nations Championship, involving the British and Irish sides only and launched in 1883. France joined in 1910, creating the Five Nations, but were kicked out after the 1931 edition. They were invited back after the 1939 edition, but World War II ended international rugby in Europe until 1947. The competition became the Six Nations with Italy's entry in 2000. The competition is held as a single round-robin—i.e., each team plays the others once. The current champions are France, who won the 2022 championship with a Grand Slam, earned by defeating all 5 others in the same season. The bottom team gets the so-called 'wooden spoon', a tradition that goes back to the 1890s, if not before. These days it's usually held by Italy, but both Wales and France have held it before (once each), and it used to regularly be held by Scotland, leading to the mocking song sung by English fans, 'O spoon of Scotland...' to the tune of their national anthem.

* '''Rugby World Cup Sevens''' — Traditionally the top prize for national sevens teams, it was first held in 1993. The winner receives the Melrose Cup, named after the Scottish town where sevens was first played. When sevens was added to the Olympic program for 2016, it was initially decided that the World Cup Sevens would be scrapped after 2013. However, it was later decided to retain the World Cup, with the next edition held in 2018 and future editions every four years thereafter. New Zealand have won the two most recent editions (Moscow in 2013, San Francisco in 2018).
* '''World Rugby Sevens Series'''[[note]]Per corporate naming, called the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series[[/note]] — An annual series of tournaments for national sevens teams conducted since 1999–2000. The 2019–20 series was scheduled to make 10 stops: Dubai, South Africa (Cape Town), New Zealand (Hamilton), Australia (Sydney), the USA (the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California), Canada (Vancouver), Hong Kong, Singapore, England (London), and France (Paris). However, COVID-19 cut the season short. Each tournament involves 16 teams competing for two distinct trophies, plus points toward the overall series championship. Fifteen of these teams are "core teams" that compete in each event during a given season. The Hong Kong event incorporates a separate 12-team tournament that, since the 2013–14 season, has been used for core team qualification for the following season. The winner of this tournament is assured a core team place in the next season, replacing the core team that finished with the fewest points at the end of the series. New Zealand have traditionally dominated this series, with 13 titles in all, but their win in the abbreviated 2019–20 season was their first since 2014. The other nations to have won are Fiji (four times), South Africa (three), and Samoa (one). The 2020–21 season was a COVID-19 casualty; the upcoming season will have only six legs and take place entirely in calendar 2021, mainly due to the rescheduling of the Tokyo Olympics (which has sevens tournaments for both men and women).
* There are also a number of [[DistaffCounterpart parallel women's competitions]] to the above, which draw far less interest. A brief rundown:

** '''Women's Six Nations''' – Much like its men's counterpart, it began as an event for the Home Nations, though not until 1996. France joined in 1999; Ireland left in 2000 and was replaced by Spain. It became the Six Nations with Ireland's return in 2002. In 2007, the (men's) Six Nations committee took over the tournament, kicking Spain out in favor of Italy to align the two competitions. The current holders are England, who won the 2022 title with a Grand Slam. COVID-19 led to one permanent change to the tournament; from the 2022 edition forward, the women's 6N starts after the men's version ends.
** '''Rugby World Cup Sevens''' – The women's version, held at the same site and the same time as the men's tournament, was first held in 2009 in Dubai. As in the case of the men's tournament, New Zealand have won the last two editions.
** '''World Rugby Women's Sevens Series''' – Launched in 2012–13 with four events; had either five or six in each subsequent season through 2018–19. The 2019–20 season was planned to be the first with eight stops, six of which were to be held at the same time and venue as a men's Sevens Series event. Only the USA and Canada stops are standalone events. The events are in the USA (the UsefulNotes/{{Denver}} suburb of Glendale, Colorado), Dubai, Cape Town (''new for 2019–20''), New Zealand (Hamilton; ''new for 2019–20''), Australia (Sydney), Hong Kong (''new for 2019–20''), Canada (the Victoria, BC suburb of Langford), and France (Paris). An event in Japan (Kitakyushu) was temporarily removed from the schedule due to the country being scheduled to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. However, COVID-19 also cut short that season (and forced the Olympics to be moved to 2021). Each tournament features 12 teams (instead of the 16 in the men's version), with 11 core teams. Promotion and relegation operates in the same manner as in the men's series, with a core team qualifying tournament structure similar to that used on the men's side. The reigning champions are New Zealand, which have won every season except one (Australia in 2017–18). As with the men's Sevens Series, the 2020–21 season was a COVID casualty, and the next season will be reduced to four stops and be held entirely in calendar 2021 (also in large part due to the rescheduling of the Olympics).

The competition expanded again in 2022, but this time with an emphasis on developing rugby in the Pacific islands. The Fijian Drua, which had competed in Australia's National Rugby Championship (below) until that league went belly-up after the 2019 season, joined, as did Moana Pasifika, an Auckland-based side that draws players from all of the Pacific islands (but mostly Samoa and Tonga). With the new teams joining, the competition has been rebranded as '''Super Rugby Pacific''', and is no longer split into conferences. Instead, each team plays a full round-robin schedule, plus three extra matches with an emphasis on regional derbies. The top eight teams at the end of the regular season advance to a traditional knockout playoff. The first champions of the Super Rugby Pacific era are the aforementioned Crusaders.\\

It is also believed by some to be the reason French international rugby had been on the wane through the 2010s,[[note]]although one prominent French coach blames this on the effective extinction of school sport in the country, meaning that most (though not all) young players are technically far behind those in the other rugby powers[[/note]] and it's a tough sell for the neutral given the intense desire of every team to win every game (the league operates a promotion and relegation system with the second-level Rugby Pro D2, and every team is desperate to avoid relegation, meaning games are often played in a very cautious and risk-free manner). The reigning champions are Montpellier.
* '''Gallagher Premiership''' - the English domestic competition. 12 teams from around the country compete every year across 22 regular season games (playing each opponent once at home and once away), two semi-finals and one grand final, played out at the home of English rugby, Twickenham Stadium. Very much plays second fiddle to the Top 14 in terms of revenue and even the United Rugby Championship in terms of viewership, but despite this the Gallagher Premiership is one of the top leagues in the world and is slowly gaining pace and success. In particular, the standard of rugby played in the Premiership is generally considered, currently at least, to be higher than the URC (though that may change with South Africa now fully involved) and more interesting than the Top 14, and the increase in commercial success is starting to mean that the best international players are increasingly being drawn to England over France (though the language issue is also likely a factor). Like the [=T14=] it operates with a promotion and relegation model, but the more amicable relationship between the English national administration and the clubs compared to the situation in France and the less frenzied financial pressures mean that teams are not quite as risk-averse. The reigning champions are Leicester Tigers.
* '''United Rugby Championship''' - formerly (and in some quarters unofficially still) known as the Celtic League,[[note]](the company that runs the competition is still legally known as "Celtic Rugby")[[/note]] as [=Pro12=] before 2017, and then [=Pro14=] through the 2020–21 season, this is a curious beast by domestic rugby standards, involving an international domestic competition at the level below the ERCC. Since the 2021–22 season, its first under its new name, it consists of 4 teams from Ireland ([[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles including Ulster which overlaps with Northern Ireland]]), 4 from Wales, 2 from Scotland, 2 from Italy (who were just happy to be invited), and 4 from South Africa. Played to the same general structure as the Gallagher Premiership, it has higher viewing figures thanks to being played across a less concentrated population. The standard of rugby, at least among the top teams, is very high and several teams who contest the URC have gone on to become famous European champions. In particular the Irish provinces (it's a local thing) of Leinster and Munster enjoyed something of a golden age in the 00s, and after a decline in the first part of the 2010s are on the rise again. The other thing to note about the URC is that it doesn't have promotion or relegation, meaning teams are free to play in a more carefree, Southern Hemisphere-esque fashion than they are in the Gallagher Premiership or Top 14. The reigning champions are the Stormers (Cape Town), who took down four-time defending champion Leinster in the semifinals before beating fellow South African side Bulls (Pretoria) in the final.

The 2021–22 season, the first under the URC name, divided the 16 sides into four "pods"—Irish, Italian–Scottish, South African and Welsh—though classified in a single league table. Each team plays home and away against sides within its pod, plus single matches against all other sides, resulting in a 18-round league season. The top eight teams on the league table advance to knockout playoffs, with higher seeds hosting except for the final at a predetermined venue. The top team from each pod, plus the four top teams on the league table not already qualified, qualify for the next season's Champions Cup. This includes South Africa, which now participates fully in European club competitions. Each pod also awards a "Shield" to the side that finishes atop the pod in the regular season; in 2022, Leinster won the Irish Shield, Edinburgh the Italian–Scottish Shield, Stormers the South African Shield, and Ospreys (Swansea) won the Welsh Shield.

* '''National Provincial Championship''' - New Zealand's premier entirely domestic competition, and thus arguably the highest quality (on average at least) rugby competition in the world. Now having reverted to its original name, though currently with name sponsorship by Aussie hardware chain Bunnings (which also operates in NZ), it is however not particularly well-known outside of rugby mad New Zealand, for the simple reason that Super Rugby is generally treated as the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the domestic competitions listed above. All the same if your primary concern is watching the highest consistent levels of skill on a regular basis the NPC is probably where you should look. It operated with a promotion and relegation structure from 2011 through 2021, returning to a single division in 2022, but the New Zealand rugby culture means that even in the two-division era it featured a very high number of tries scored per game, which is usually a hallmark of both high quality and teams playing with risk and abandon. The NPC also functions, like all domestic competitions, as the pipeline for the next generation of rugby talent, so it provides an opportunity to see up-and-coming All Blacks as they first arrive on the scene - along with the current ones in fact, because the competition runs at a different time to Super Rugby and thus allows players to keep getting games in and honing their skills when normally they'd be in the off-season. The reigning champions are Waikato, located in the North Island city of Hamilton, about 90 minutes' drive south of Auckland.
* '''Currie Cup''' - the South African equivalent of the NPC. As with the NPC, the CC has a comparatively low profile, but South Africa is sufficiently rugby mad that it still has a decent buzz surrounding it. The competition has been running since 1892, and is probably the most efficient way to watch a combination of rugby, and men getting put through the wringer – South African rugby has a well-deserved reputation for physicality, and the players who compete in it are no shrinking violets. The reigning champions are the Pumas, playing out of the northern city of Mbombela (formerly Nelspruit) and linked to the URC's Bulls.

* The USA is now on its second try at a truly professional league. The first attempt, '''PRO Rugby''', was founded in late 2015 and was initially planned to involve 6 teams, but ended up with only 5 when play started in 2016. These teams competed against each other home and away, with the winner (unusually in rugby, which has embraced the end-of-season playoff concept in virtually all domestic competitions) determined by the highest placed team at the end of the season. PRO Rugby was in a slightly awkward position lying somewhere between "professional rugby competition" and "proof of concept", but its first season was considered a success based on performance vs. expectations. However, the league found itself in a nasty dispute with USA Rugby (the national federation), including claims of unpaid wages by some of the league's highest-profile players, that caused the league to fold before it got a chance at a second season. The plans of the former [=Pro12=] to expand into North America also didn't help matters. The inaugural and only champions were the Denver Stampede. After a year without a pro league, and the end of [=Pro14's=] North American expansion plans, the void was filled by '''Major League Rugby''', which launched in 2018 with teams from Austin, Denver, Houston, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, San Diego, and Seattle. The original seven teams were joined in 2019 by sides from New York City and Toronto, plus teams from Atlanta, Boston, and Washington, D.C. in 2020. COVID-19 led to the cancellation of the 2020 season, with the Denver team leaving shortly thereafter and being replaced by a Los Angeles side. A Dallas team was originally set to join in 2021, but put off its debut to 2022. The league currently operates on a single-entity model much like UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer, with the league owning all teams and the team operators being shareholders in the league. Of note in this regard, several serious investors bought into the league in the 2019–20 offseason. The Scottish Rugby Union took a minority interest in the incoming DC side, Australian fitness entrepreneur Adam Gilchrist (not the Aussie cricket great) bought into the Austin team and later the LA team as well, and Top 14 power Clermont bought a piece of the New Orleans side. Several major international stars on the downside of their careers also signed up, among them Wallabies Adam Ashley-Cooper, Digby Ioane, and Drew Mitchell; All Blacks Ma'a Nonu, Rene Ranger, and Adam Thomson; Springbok Tendai "Beast" Mtawarira; France's Mathieu Bastareaud; and England's Ben Foden. Unlike PRO Rugby, MLR ends its season with a four-team playoff. The 2021 title went to the LA Giltinis in their first league season.
* On a much lower profile to the above competitions, the Welsh '''Premiership''' is the highest level of purely domestic Rugby in Wales and was where (prior to the consolidation of Welsh professional Rugby into regional sides in what is now the URC) most of the Welsh national side played their week-in-week-out Rugby, though it is now a mixture of professional and semi-pro players. With many of the biggest teams coming from small towns or large villages in the notoriously rainy Valleys, in contrast to the running Rugby displayed in the Southern Hemisphere, this is often your archetypical muddy, cold, windy, rough and unpleasant Rugby environment. [[RugbyIsSlaughter Rugby is slaughter]] indeed. The reigning champions are Cardiff, an effective developmental side for that city's URC team.