History UsefulNotes / RugbyUnion

* '''The Lions Tour''' - a quadrennial tour by the British and Irish Lions (generally abbreviated to simply 'the Lions'), a squad composed of the best players in the British Isles, of one of the three traditional Southern Hemisphere nations (i.e., not counting Argentina). Traditionally, the Lions play several warm-up games against provincial sides or top club teams before taking on the national team in three matches. The results are generally fairly even; there has not been a whitewash since the All Blacks swept the Lions 3–0 in 2005. The 2009 tour of South Africa ended with the Springboks winning the Test series 2–1; the 2013 tour of Australia resulted in the same Test series score, but with the Lions winning; and the most recently completed tour of New Zealand in 2017 saw a drawn Test series (1–1–1). On the latter tour, the [=ABs=] convincingly won the first Test 30–15, the Lions came back to win the second Test 24–21, and the final Test ended 15–15, with the [=ABs=] literally [[DownToTheLastPlay inches from a series-winning try]]. This was the Lions' first drawn Test series since their series with the Boks in 1955. The ongoing 2021 tour in South Africa sees the Lions and the Boks level at one Test each, with the decider to be held on 7 August.

The competition will expand 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 thta league went belly-up after the 2019 season, will join, as will Moana Pasifika, an Auckland-based side that will draw players from all of the Pacific islands (but mostly Samoa and Tonga).\\

The competition will expand 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 thta league went belly-up after the 2019 season, will join, as will Moana Pasifika, an Auckland-based side that will draw players from all of the Pacific islands (but mostly Samoa and Tonga).

* '''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 has had either eight or nine teams since it formed; 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).

* '''Super Rugby''' - A contest between domestic teams (generally referred to as franchises rather than clubs), currently from the SANZAAR[[labelnote:*]][[FunWithAcronyms South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina[[/labelnote]] nations of Australia and New Zealand. The competition has in the past included teams from the other two SANZAAR nations of South Africa and Argentina, plus one, slightly token team from Japan. It is contested annually, and as you'd expect from a competition featuring teams from some of the best rugby nations in the world, the quality is generally considered to be second only to international rugby. This is somewhat debatable at times, and for years there has been a lengthy argument to be had regarding the devaluing or otherwise of the competition as it slowly expanded. It started life as a competition between 6 provincial sides from Australia and New Zealand, but gradually expanded to incorporate a total of 18 franchises (5 each for New Zealand and Australia, 1 from Argentina, 1 from Japan and 6 from South Africa - the sixth South African team being added partially for money but mainly for domestic political reasons).\\

* '''Super Rugby''' - A contest between domestic teams (generally referred to as franchises rather than clubs) from the SANZAAR nations (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina), plus one, slightly token team from Japan. It is contested annually, and as you'd expect from a competition featuring teams from some of the best rugby nations in the world, the quality is generally considered to be second only to international rugby. This is somewhat debatable at times, and for years there has been a lengthy argument to be had regarding the devaluing or otherwise of the competition as it slowly expanded. It started life as a competition between 6 provincial sides from Australia and New Zealand, but gradually expanded to incorporate a total of 18 franchises (5 each for New Zealand and Australia, 1 from Argentina, 1 from Japan and 6 from South Africa - the sixth South African team being added partially for money but mainly for domestic political reasons).\\

Further changes were announced in 2019 — the Japanese side, the Sunwolves, were to be axed after the 2020 season, after which the competition was intended to return to a single round-robin format, followed by a 6-team playoff. However, COVID-19 led to the effective demise of Super Rugby, at least in its previous form. With travel restrictions in place throughout and between the SANZAAR countries, the Australian and New Zealand sides respectively established their own fully-domestic competitions, Super Rugby AU and Super Rugby Aotearoa. South Africa, under much more severe lockdown conditions for several months, could not immediately launch its own domestic mini-league, but began Super Rugby Unlocked in October 2020. After a row between the Aussie and Kiwi national federations, both countries decided to continue with their domestic-only leagues for at least 2021. South Africa then made a long-rumoured pivot toward European competition. One of the two teams that had moved to [=Pro12=] folded, and the 2020–21 season was the last in Europe for the other. The country's four remaining Super Rugby sides moved en masse to that competition, expanding it to what's now the United Rugby Championship. As for the Aussies and Kiwis, they settled on a two-stage competition:

* 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. 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 ([[NamesTheSame not the Aussie cricket great]]) bought the Austin team, 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 Seattle Seawolves have won both MLR titles to date; COVID-19 led to the cancellation of the 2020 season.

* '''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 Harlequins, who play in London next door to the England national team's home of Twickenham.

The 2021–22 season, the first under the URC name, will see the 16 sides divided into four "pods"—Irish, Italian–Scottish, South African and Welsh—though classified in a single league table. Each team will play home and away against sides from its own country, plus single matches against all other sides (with adjustments for the Italian and Scottish teams), resulting in a 18-round league season. The top eight teams on the league table will 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, will qualify for the next season's Champions Cup. This includes South Africa, which will now participate fully in European club competitions.

* 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 [=Pro14=]) 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.

* '''National Rugby Championship''' - Australia's now-defunct equivalent to the Mitre 10 and Currie Cup competitions. 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 represents the latest attempt to surpass that obstacle and raise the profile of the game among Australia's sports-mad population - as yet the jury is out on how successful that attempt is. The NRC has had either eight or nine teams since it formed; 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).
* 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 (for now) 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. 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 ([[NamesTheSame not the Aussie cricket great]]) bought the Austin team, 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 Seattle Seawolves have won both MLR titles to date; COVID-19 led to the cancellation of the 2020 season.

The first champions under the current format are the Reds in Australia, the Crusaders in NZ, and the Blues (from NZ) in Trans-Tasman.\\

* '''European Rugby Champions Cup''' - Broadly speaking the Northern Hemisphere equivalent of Super Rugby, this is an international competition between the best teams from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy (although the Italian sides are very much also-rans). Because the season is more fragmented in the Northern Hemisphere and also because the national competitions are stronger and run at roughly the same time, this competition is more truncated than Super Rugby - where the latter runs for 17 regular season rounds followed by 3 elimination rounds, the former has only 6 regular season rounds before the elimination stage. Like Super Rugby the competition undergoes periodic mutation, but has remained more stable in structure.\\\

However, the actual teams who contest it are not fixed as with Super Rugby, but rather determined by performance in the respective national competitions in the preceding year. Like most Northern Hemisphere rugby competitions, compared to the Southern offering the ERCC is a little more stodgy, defense-focused and setpiece oriented. This is partially a product of mindset among players and coaches but also a simple result of weather - rugby is a winter sport and it is not uncommon for it to be played, in Europe, in howling gales, driving rain and the occasional mild snowstorm, all of which are comparatively rarer in most of the Southern Hemisphere rugby nations. The reigning champions are Toulouse, who went on to complete a rare European double by winning the Top 14.[[note]]This contest also has a lower-profile sister competition referred to as the Challenge Cup, and contested by teams who just missed out on the big league, plus a couple of token entries from the second-tier European nations. It is considerably less highly regarded.[[/note]]
* '''Top 14''' - the premier French domestic competition. 14 (clever, eh?) teams compete against each other across 26 regular season games and a six-team playoff, with two quarterfinals, a pair of semifinals and a final. The final, normally at Stade de France in the inner Paris suburb of Saint-Denis (though held in Barcelona in 2016 due to a scheduling conflict with [[UsefulNotes/EuropeanChampionship UEFA Euro 2016]]), is one of France's biggest sporting events and has a party atmosphere. The competition has been running since 1892 and is without much question the most popular non-international domestic competition in the world. The French, it turns out (especially in the south), are crazy about rugby, and the [=T14=] is rapidly becoming rugby's equivalent of the UsefulNotes/EnglishPremierLeague, with star players from around the world turning out in front of huge, rabid crowds and being paid comparatively substantial sums of money.\\\

It is also believed by some to be the reason French international rugby has been on the wane for the better part of a decade,[[note]]although one prominent French coach blames this on the effective extinction of school sport in the country, meaning that most 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 Toulouse.
* '''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 [=Pro14=] 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 Harlequins, who play in London next door to the England national team's home of Twickenham.
* '''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. As of its upcoming 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 four-time reigning champions are Leinster, which completed the rare double of domestic/regional and continental titles in 2018 and missed out on a chance to repeat the double by losing to Saracens (out of London) in the 2019 ERCC 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 (Pretoria), Lions (Johannesburg), Sharks (Durban), and Stormers (Cape Town)—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.\\

The 2021–22 season, the first under the URC name, will see the 16 sides divided into four "pods"—Irish, Italian–Scottish, South African and Welsh—though classified in a single league table. Each team will play home and away against sides from its own country, plus single matches against all other sides (with adjustments for the Italian and Scottish teams), resulting in a 18-round league season. The top eight teams on the league table will advance to knockout playoffs, with higher seeds hosting except for the final at a predetermined venue.

* '''Currie Cup''' - the South African equivalent of the Mitre 10. 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 Blue Bulls, playing out of Pretoria as the main feeder side for the Bulls of the URC.

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".

The Italians, meanwhile, had each of the other teams in the Six Nations regarding their match against Italy as a chance to rack up points and have a bit of fun. However, after years of pushing and patiently developing a formidable forward pack, they finally beat Scotland in 2015 and ran (an admittedly very off-form) Wales close in a World Cup warm-up match later that year. That said, even their own players admit that they lack strength in depth, and the ''Azzurri'' have lost every Six Nations match they've played since that win over Scotland (27 in a row following the 2020 [=6N=]).[[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...[[/note]]

* '''The Rugby Championship''' — Created as the Tri Nations Series in 1996, shortly after the sport became professional, and initially involving South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. In 2012, Argentina was invited to join and the competition adopted its current name. It's played in a home-and-away format except in World Cup years, in which it's truncated into a single round-robin series. The governing body is SANZAAR, a joint venture between the governing bodies of the participating countries (originally SANZAR until Argentina became a full member in 2016). South Africa are the reigning champions, having won the abbreviated 2019 edition, but New Zealand won the previous three editions, all played in the normal home-and-away format.

* '''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).

** '''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''. Currently held every four years; New Zealand won the most recent edition in Ireland in 2017.
** '''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 2020 title with a round to spare and went on to claim the Grand Slam.

** '''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).

* '''Super Rugby''' - A contest between domestic teams (generally referred to as franchises rather than clubs) from the SANZAAR nations (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina), plus one, slightly token team from Japan. It is contested annually, and as you'd expect from a competition featuring teams from some of the best rugby nations in the world, the quality is generally considered to be second only to international rugby. This is somewhat debatable at times, and for years there has been a lengthy argument to be had regarding the devaluing or otherwise of the competition as it slowly expanded. It started life as a competition between 6 provincial sides from Australia and New Zealand, but gradually expanded to incorporate a total of 18 franchises (5 each for New Zealand and Australia, 1 from Argentina, 1 from Japan and 6 from South Africa - the sixth South African team being added partially for money but mainly for domestic political reasons).\\\

The aftermath of the most recent expansion (from 15 to 18 teams) saw noticeable declines in interest and competitiveness in Australia and to a lesser extent South Africa, which was apparently the last straw for New Zealand and SANZAAR. For 2018, the competition reverted to a 15-team format, with one Australian side and two South African sides being axed. The South African teams landed on their feet in the European league formerly known as [=Pro12=], now [=Pro14=] (see below), and the Australian side eventually wound up in the country's National Rugby Championship (also below).\\\

Further changes were announced in 2019 — the Japanese side, the Sunwolves, were to be axed after the 2020 season, after which the competition was intended to return to a single round-robin format, followed by a 6-team playoff. However, COVID-19 led to the effective demise of Super Rugby, at least in its previous form. With travel restrictions in place throughout and between the SANZAAR countries, the Australian and New Zealand sides respectively established their own fully-domestic competitions, Super Rugby AU and Super Rugby Aotearoa. South Africa, under much more severe lockdown conditions for several months, could not immediately launch its own domestic mini-league, but began Super Rugby Unlocked in October 2020. After a row between the Aussie and Kiwi national federations, both countries decided to continue with their domestic-only leagues for at least 2021. South Africa then made a long-rumoured pivot toward European competition. One of the two teams that had moved to [=Pro12=] folded, and the 2020–21 season will be the last in Europe for the other. The country's four remaining Super Rugby sides are now all but certain to move en masse to that competition, expanding it to [=Pro16=]. A further sign of this expansion is that the aforementioned four SA sides will play in the Rainbow Cup against [=Pro14=] sides in the northern spring of 2021; this will also give SA players needed high-level playing time to prepare for that year's British and Irish Lions tour of SA.\\\

Under its various guises, Super Rugby has been a showcase of "basketball" style rugby, played in generally agreeable weather on firm grounds by teams whose primary concern after winning is to put on a great show. It helped that the big four countries' "playing styles" from which franchises were drawn have an interesting dynamic based on a cultural disposition to play a certain brand of rugby - the Australian and New Zealand teams favour skilful passing and inspired unstructured play (with the Australians far more unpredictable for both good and ill), South African teams share the Springboks' mastery of the set piece, and the Argentines make it a point to beat the living daylights out of their opponents - surely an exciting spectacle when you see the techniques thrown against each other. The tournament's supervising body also aims to encourage a grand spectacle. It has seen a fairly broad spread of winners, with the most successful teams unsurprisingly tending to hail from New Zealand - but both Australian and South African teams have won it as well, and the Argentine side made the 2019 final. The Crusaders of New Zealand won the last three titles before the competition's effective breakup (2017–2019), also winning Super Rugby Aotearoa in 2020.

However, the actual teams who contest it are not fixed as with Super Rugby, but rather determined by performance in the respective national competitions in the preceding year. Like most Northern Hemisphere rugby competitions, compared to the Southern offering the ERCC is a little more stodgy, defense-focused and setpiece oriented. This is partially a product of mindset among players and coaches but also a simple result of weather - rugby is a winter sport and it is not uncommon for it to be played, in Europe, in howling gales, driving rain and the occasional mild snowstorm, all of which are comparatively rarer in most of the Southern Hemisphere rugby nations. The reigning champions are Exeter Chiefs, who went on to complete a rare European double by winning the English Premiership.[[note]]This contest also has a lower-profile sister competition referred to as the Challenge Cup, and contested by teams who just missed out on the big league, plus a couple of token entries from the second-tier European nations. It is considerably less highly regarded.[[/note]]

* '''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 [=Pro14=] 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 [=Pro14=] 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, in a season that was interrupted by months due to COVID-19, are Exeter Chiefs.
* '''Guinness [=Pro14=]''' - 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 its most recent expansion in 2017, this is a curious beast by domestic rugby standards, involving an international domestic competition at the level below the ERCC. As of its current 2020–21 season (delayed due to COVID-19), 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 1 from South Africa. Yes, that makes [[ArtifactTitle only 13 teams]]... keep reading for the explanation. 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 [=Pro14=] 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 [=Pro14=] 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 three-time reigning champions are Leinster, which completed the rare double of domestic/regional and continental titles in 2018 and missed out on a chance to repeat the double by losing to Saracens (out of London) in the 2019 ERCC 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=] 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]] Most 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) are playing in the 2020–21 season, but after that will leave the league. South Africa's "Big Four" Super Rugby sides—the Bulls (Pretoria), Lions (Johannesburg), Sharks (Durban), and Stormers (Cape Town)—are now likely to join, making the league [=Pro16=].

* '''Mitre 10 Cup''' - New Zealand's premier entirely domestic competition, and thus arguably the highest quality (on average at least) rugby competition in the world. 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 Mitre 10 is probably where you should look. It operates with a promotion and relegation structure, but the New Zealand rugby culture means that it still averages 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 Mitre 10 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 (Aotearoa) 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 Auckland.
* '''Currie Cup''' - the South African equivalent of the Mitre 10. As with the Mitre 10 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 Free State Cheetahs, playing out of Bloemfontein as the main feeder side for the Cheetahs of [=Pro14=].
* '''The National Rugby Championship''' - Australia's equivalent to the Mitre 10 and Currie Cup competitions. The NRC is, 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 represents the latest attempt to surpass that obstacle and raise the profile of the game among Australia's sports-mad population - as yet the jury is out on how successful that attempt is. The NRC has had either eight or nine teams since it formed; 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 reigning champions are the Western Force from Perth, which had been axed from Super Rugby after that competition's 2017 season.

* '''The Lions Tour''' - a quadrennial tour by the British and Irish Lions (generally abbreviated to simply 'the Lions'), a squad composed of the best players in the British Isles, of one of the three traditional Southern Hemisphere nations (i.e., not counting Argentina). Traditionally, the Lions play several warm-up games against provincial sides or top club teams before taking on the national team in three matches. The results are generally fairly even; there has not been a whitewash since the All Blacks swept the Lions 3–0 in 2005. The 2009 tour of South Africa ended with the Springboks winning the Test series 2–1; the 2013 tour of Australia resulted in the same Test series score, but with the Lions winning; and the most recent tour of New Zealand in 2017 saw a drawn Test series (1–1–1). On the latter tour, the [=ABs=] convincingly won the first Test 30–15, the Lions came back to win the second Test 24–21, and the final Test ended 15–15, with the [=ABs=] literally [[DownToTheLastPlay inches from a series-winning try]]. This was the Lions' first drawn Test series since their series with the Boks in 1955.

* 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 England, who won the 2020 championship after months of delays due to [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]]. Any team that defeats all 5 others in the same season earns the Grand Slam; the last country to do so was Wales in 2019. 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.

The Italians, meanwhile, had each of the other teams in the Six Nations regarding their match against Italy as a chance to rack up points and have a bit of fun. However, after years of pushing and patiently developing a formidable forward pack, they finally beat Scotland in 2015 and ran (an admittedly very off-form) Wales close in a World Cup warm-up match later that year. That said, even their own players admit that they lack strength in depth, and the ''Azzurri'' have lost every Six Nations match they've played since that win over Scotland (22 in a row going into the 2020 [=6N=]).[[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..[[/note]]

Further changes were announced in 2019 — the Japanese side, the Sunwolves, were to be axed after the 2020 season, after which the competition was intended to return to a single round-robin format, followed by a 6-team playoff. However, COVID-19 led to the effective demise of Super Rugby, at least in its previous form. With travel restrictions in place throughout and between the SANZAAR countries, the Australian and New Zealand sides respectively established their own fully-domestic competitions, Super Rugby AU and Super Rugby Aotearoa. South Africa, under much more severe lockdown conditions for several months, could not immediately launch its own domestic mini-league, but began Super Rugby Unlocked in October 2020. After a row between the Aussie and Kiwi national federations, both countries decided to continue with their domestic-only leagues for at least 2021. South Africa then made a long-rumoured pivot toward European competition. One of the two teams that had moved to [=Pro12=] folded, and the 2020–21 season will be the last in Europe for the other. The country's four remaining Super Rugby sides are now all but certain to move en masse to that competition, expanding it to [=Pro16=].\\\

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's 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'' {(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[[/note]] 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".

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's 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'' 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[[/note]] 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".

However, things aren't quite that simple - a good rule of thumb is that Rugby has almost no protective gear and fairly strict rules about what you can do to people, and American Football has a lot of protective gear and almost no rules about what you can do to people. Also, American Football players run the gamut from ''very'' big and heavy to rather lightweight - especially at the semi pro level. In Rugby, while there are certain positions that tend to attract players of more or less weight, the specialisation is a lot less pronounced than it used to be - Forwards used to be [[StoutStrength huge, fat]] [[MightyGlacier and slow,]](Unless they were flankers, who were - and are - [[StoutStrength huge,very chunky]] [[{{Acrofatic}} and ''frighteningly quick'']]) while Backs, especially wingers, [[FragileSpeedster were small and fast.]] The last great example of the latter was Shane 'Shimmering Shane' Williams, a 5'8" multiple Grand Slam Winner with Wales and was called up to the Lions squad (composed of the best players in the British Isles) as injury cover at the age of ''36'' when he'd be due to fly out as a ''commentator''. (In the end, he didn't play in any of the Tests, though he did turn out for midweek matches.)

However, things aren't quite that simple - a good rule of thumb is that Rugby has almost no protective gear and fairly strict rules about what you can do to people, and American Football has a lot of protective gear and almost no rules about what you can do to people. Also, American Football players run the gamut from ''very'' big and heavy to rather lightweight - especially at the semi pro level. In Rugby, while there are certain positions that tend to attract players of more or less weight, the specialisation is a lot less pronounced than it used to be - Forwards used to be [[StoutStrength huge, fat]] [[MightyGlacier and slow,]](Unless they were flankers, who were - and are - [[StoutStrength huge,very chunky]] [[{{Acrofatic}} and ''frighteningly quick'']] while Backs, especially wingers, [[FragileSpeedster were small and fast.]] The last great example of the latter was Shane 'Shimmering Shane' Williams, a 5'8" multiple Grand Slam Winner with Wales and was called up to the Lions squad (composed of the best players in the British Isles) as injury cover at the age of ''36'' when he'd be due to fly out as a ''commentator''. (In the end, he didn't play in any of the Tests, though he did turn out for midweek matches.)

However, things aren't quite that simple - a good rule of thumb is that Rugby has almost no protective gear and fairly strict rules about what you can do to people, and American Football has a lot of protective gear and almost no rules about what you can do to people. Also, American Football players run the gamut from ''very'' big and heavy to rather lightweight - especially at the semi pro level. In Rugby, while there are certain positions that tend to attract players of more or less weight, the specialisation is a lot less pronounced than it used to be - Forwards used to be [[StoutStrength huge, fat]] [[MightyGlacier and slow,]](Unless they were flankers, who were - and are - [[StoutStrength huge,very chunky]] [[Main/Acrofatic and ''frighteningly quick'']] while Backs, especially wingers, [[FragileSpeedster were small and fast.]] The last great example of the latter was Shane 'Shimmering Shane' Williams, a 5'8" multiple Grand Slam Winner with Wales and was called up to the Lions squad (composed of the best players in the British Isles) as injury cover at the age of ''36'' when he'd be due to fly out as a ''commentator''. (In the end, he didn't play in any of the Tests, though he did turn out for midweek matches.)

However, things aren't quite that simple - a good rule of thumb is that Rugby has almost no protective gear and fairly strict rules about what you can do to people, and American Football has a lot of protective gear and almost no rules about what you can do to people. Also, American Football players run the gamut from ''very'' big and heavy to rather lightweight - especially at the semi pro level. In Rugby, while there are certain positions that tend to attract players of more or less weight, the specialisation is a lot less pronounced than it used to be - Forwards used to be [[StoutStrength huge, fat]] [[MightyGlacier and slow,]](Unless they were flankers, who were - and are - [[StoutStrength huge,very chunky]] [[Acrofatic and ''frighteningly quick'']] while Backs, especially wingers, [[FragileSpeedster were small and fast.]] The last great example of the latter was Shane 'Shimmering Shane' Williams, a 5'8" multiple Grand Slam Winner with Wales and was called up to the Lions squad (composed of the best players in the British Isles) as injury cover at the age of ''36'' when he'd be due to fly out as a ''commentator''. (In the end, he didn't play in any of the Tests, though he did turn out for midweek matches.)

However, things aren't quite that simple - a good rule of thumb is that Rugby has almost no protective gear and fairly strict rules about what you can do to people, and American Football has a lot of protective gear and almost no rules about what you can do to people. Also, American Football players run the gamut from ''very'' big and heavy to rather lightweight - especially at the semi pro level. In Rugby, while there are certain positions that tend to attract players of more or less weight, the specialisation is a lot less pronounced than it used to be - Forwards used to be [[StoutStrength huge, fat]] [[MightyGlacier and slow,]] while Backs, especially wingers, [[FragileSpeedster were small and fast.]] The last great example of the latter was Shane 'Shimmering Shane' Williams, a 5'8" multiple Grand Slam Winner with Wales and was called up to the Lions squad (composed of the best players in the British Isles) as injury cover at the age of ''36'' when he'd be due to fly out as a ''commentator''. (In the end, he didn't play in any of the Tests, though he did turn out for midweek matches.)

* '''Guinness [=Pro14=]''' - 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 its most recent expansion in 2017, this is a curious beast by domestic rugby standards, involving an international domestic competition at the level below the ERCC. As of its current 2020–21 season (delayed due to COVID-19), 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 1 from South Africa. Yes, that makes [[ArtifactTitle only 13 teams]]... keep reading for the explanation. 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 [=Pro14=] 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 current decade are on the rise again. The other thing to note about the [=Pro14=] 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 three-time reigning champions are Leinster, which completed the rare double of domestic/regional and continental titles in 2018 and missed out on a chance to repeat the double by losing to Saracens (out of London) in the 2019 ERCC final.

* 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 Wales, who won the 2019 championship and completed the Grand Slam – done by defeating all 5 other teams – in the final round at home against Ireland. 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.

* '''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, [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic 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).

** '''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 have won the 2020 title with a round to spare.

** 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=] 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]] Most 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) will play in the 2020–21 season, but after that will leave the league. South Africa's "Big Four" Super Rugby sides—the Bulls (Pretoria), Lions (Johannesburg), Sharks (Durban), and Stormers (Cape Town)—are now likely to join, making the league [=Pro16=].

** '''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, with a Grand Slam in 2019.

Further changes were announced in 2019 — the Japanese side, the Sunwolves, were to be axed after the 2020 season, after which the competition was intended to return to a single round-robin format, followed by a 6-team playoff. However, COVID-19 led to the effective demise of Super Rugby, at least in its previous form. With travel restrictions in place throughout and between the SANZAAR countries, the Australian and New Zealand sides respectively established their own fully-domestic competitions, Super Rugby AU and Super Rugby Aotearoa. South Africa, under much more severe lockdown conditions for several months, could not immediately launch its own domestic mini-league, but will hold the Springbok Showdown in late 2020–early 2021. After a row between the Aussie and Kiwi national federations, both countries decided to continue with their domestic-only leagues for at least 2021. South Africa then made a long-rumoured pivot toward European competition. One of the two teams that had moved to [=Pro12=] folded, and the 2020–21 season will be the last in Europe for the other. The country's four remaining Super Rugby sides will then move en masse to that competition, expanding it to [=Pro16=].\\\

Under its various guises, Super Rugby has been a showcase of "basketball" style rugby, played in generally agreeable weather on firm grounds by teams whose primary concern after winning is to put on a great show. It helped that the big four countries' "playing styles" from which franchises were drawn have an interesting dynamic based on a cultural disposition to play a certain brand of rugby - the Australian and New Zealand teams favour skilful passing and inspired unstructured play (with the Australians far more unpredictable for both good and ill), South African teams share the Springboks' mastery of the set piece, and the Argentines make it a point to beat the living daylights out of their opponents - surely an exciting spectacle when you see the techniques thrown against each other. The tournament's supervising body also aims to encourage a grand spectacle. It has seen a fairly broad spread of winners, with the most successful teams unsurprisingly tending to hail from New Zealand - but both Australian and South African teams have won it as well, and the Argentine side made the 2019 final. The Crusaders of New Zealand won the last three titles before the competition's effective breakup (2017–2019).

However, the actual teams who contest it are not fixed as with Super Rugby, but rather determined by performance in the respective national competitions in the preceding year. Like most Northern Hemisphere rugby competitions, compared to the Southern offering the ERCC is a little more stodgy, defense-focused and setpiece oriented. This is partially a product of mindset among players and coaches but also a simple result of weather - rugby is a winter sport and it is not uncommon for it to be played, in Europe, in howling gales, driving rain and the occasional mild snowstorm, all of which are comparatively rarer in most of the Southern Hemisphere rugby nations. The reigning champions are Saracens, playing in North London.[[note]]This contest also has a lower-profile sister competition referred to as the Challenge Cup, and contested by teams who just missed out on the big league, plus a couple of token entries from the second-tier European nations. It is considerably less highly regarded.[[/note]]

* '''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 [=Pro14=] 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 [=Pro14=] 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 Saracens, who completed a rare domestic[=/=]European double in 2019. However, they were caught doing unspeakable things to the league's salary cap and will be administratively relegated at the end of the 2019–20 season (which was forced to take a months-long break due to COVID-19).
* '''Guinness [=Pro14=]''' - 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 its most recent expansion in 2017, this is a curious beast by domestic rugby standards, involving an international domestic competition at the level below the ERCC. As of its current 2020–21 season (delayed due to COVID-19), 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 1 from South Africa. Yes, that makes [[ArtifactTitle only 13 teams]]... keep reading for the explanation. 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 [=Pro14=] 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 current decade are on the rise again. The other thing to note about the [=Pro14=] 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 three-time reigning champions are Leinster, which completed the rare double of domestic/regional and continental titles in 2018 and missed out on a chance to repeat the double by losing to Saracens in the 2019 ERCC 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=] 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]] Most 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) will play in the 2020–21 season, but after that will leave the league. South Africa's "Big Four" Super Rugby sides—the Bulls (Pretoria), Lions (Johannesburg), Sharks (Durban), and Stormers (Cape Town)—will then join, making the league [=Pro16=].

* 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 (for now) 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. 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 ([[NamesTheSame not the Aussie cricket great]]) bought the Austin team, 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 Seattle Seawolves have won both MLR titles to date; COVID-19 cut that season short.

* '''Guinness [=Pro14=]''' - 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 its most recent expansion in 2017, this is a curious beast by domestic rugby standards, involving an international domestic competition at the level below the ERCC. As of its current 2020–21 season (delayed due to COVID-19), 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 1 from South Africa. Yes, that makes only 13 teams... keep reading for the explanation. 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 [=Pro16=] 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 current decade are on the rise again. The other thing to note about the [=Pro14=] 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 three-time reigning champions are Leinster, which completed the rare double of domestic/regional and continental titles in 2018 and missed out on a chance to repeat the double by losing to Saracens in the 2019 ERCC final.

* '''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 [=Pro14=] 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 [=Pro14=] 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 Saracens, who completed a rare domestic[=/=]European double in 2019. However, they were caught doing unspeakable things to the league's salary cap and will be administratively relegated at the end of the 2019–20 season.
* '''Guinness [=Pro14=]''' - 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 its most recent expansion in 2017, this is a curious beast by domestic rugby standards, involving an international domestic competition at the level below the ERCC. As of its current 2020–21 season (delayed due to COVID-19), 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 one from South Africa. Yes, that makes only 13 teams... keep reading for the explanation. 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 [=Pro16=] 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 current decade are on the rise again. The other thing to note about the [=Pro14=] 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 three-time reigning champions are Leinster, which completed the rare double of domestic/regional and continental titles in 2018 and missed out on a chance to repeat the double by losing to Saracens in the 2019 ERCC 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=] 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]] Most recently, one of the two South African sides, the Southern Kings, was liquidated in 2020 after an intended takeover bid collapsed in fraud. The Cheetahs will play in the 2020–21 season, but after that will leave the league. South Africa's "Big Four" Super Rugby sides—the Bulls (Pretoria), Lions (Johannesburg), Sharks (Durban), and Stormers (Cape Town)—will then join, making the league [=Pro16=].

* '''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 ongoing 2019–20 series is making the following 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). 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 12 titles in all, but they haven't won the series since 2014. The reigning champions are Fiji, with four titles in all, three of them since NZ's last win. South Africa (three titles in all) have the other two titles since NZ's last.

** '''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 current 2019–20 season is the first with eight stops, six of which will 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 hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics. 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).

Further changes were announced in 2019 — the Japanese side, the Sunwolves, will be axed no later than the end of the 2020 season, after which the competition will return to a single round-robin format, followed by a 6-team playoff. It is a showcase of "basketball" style rugby, played in generally agreeable weather on firm grounds by teams whose primary concern after winning is to put on a great show. It helps that the big four countries' "playing styles" from which franchises are drawn have an interesting dynamic based on a cultural disposition to play a certain brand of rugby - the Australian and New Zealand teams favour skilful passing and inspired unstructured play (with the Australians far more unpredictable for both good and ill), South African teams share the Springboks' mastery of the set piece, and the Argentines make it a point to beat the living daylights out of their opponents - surely an exciting spectacle when you see the techniques thrown against each other. The tournament's supervising body also aims to encourage a grand spectacle. It has seen a fairly broad spread of winners, with the most successful teams unsurprisingly tending to hail from New Zealand - but both Australian and South African teams have won it as well, and the Argentine side made the 2019 final. The Crusaders of New Zealand have won the last three titles.

* '''Guinness [=Pro14=]''' - 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]] and as [=Pro12=] before its most recent expansion in 2017, this is a curious beast by domestic rugby standards, involving an international domestic competition at the level below the ERCC. 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 the newest additions, 2 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 [=Pro14=] 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 current decade are on the rise again. The other thing to note about the [=Pro14=] 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 Leinster, which completed the rare double of domestic/regional and continental titles in 2018 and missed out on a chance to repeat the double by losing to Saracens in the 2019 ERCC 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. Most recently, 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=] 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]]
** Before the South African expansion was announced, the league was discussing an expansion into North America, with Georgia (the country) and Germany also pushing to be included. In the end, nothing came of it.
* '''Mitre 10 Cup''' - New Zealand's premier entirely domestic competition, and thus arguably the highest quality (on average at least) rugby competition in the world. 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 Mitre 10 is probably where you should look. It operates with a promotion and relegation structure, but the New Zealand rugby culture means that it still averages 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 Mitre 10 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 Auckland.

* 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 (for now) 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. 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 ([[NamesTheSame not the Aussie cricket great]]) bought the Austin team, 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 Seattle Seawolves have won both MLR titles to date; the 2020 coronavirus pandemic cut that season short.

Indeed, the All Blacks are (almost) 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 also enjoys this distinction, at least for the time being.[[/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 12 from 61. England have won 8 from 42, Wales 3 from 35 (and they haven't won since 1953...) and Ireland only 2 from 31, with their first win not coming until their 29th attempt in 2016 (in, of all places, ''UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}''). Their closest competitors, the Springboks of South Africa, have a record of 36–58, plus four draws, against New Zealand. The next-closest, Australia's Wallabies, have a record of 50–133, plus seven draws, against New Zealand. 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%.

Players can and do cross codes from one to the other (usually from League to Union) and some, like legendary England winger Jason Robinson are very successful. Others, not so much. Rugby League is also a bit more similar to American Football than Union (the limited number of tackles[=/=]downs for instance) and a handful of players have tried crossing over, one even making it to the NFL. Even more recently, converts from American football to rugby sevens have turned the USA men's sevens team into a major threat to that code's traditional powers, with Team USA finishing a narrow second to Fiji in the 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series. The only player to date to have been named by World Rugby as its (men's) Sevens Player of the Year more than once is Perry Baker, who played NCAA Division II football and in the Arena Football League before converting to sevens, leading the Sevens Series in tries in 2016–17, and being named as World Player of the Year for 2017 and 2018. Another former D-II football player, Carlin Isles, led the Sevens Series in tries in 2017–18 and 2018–19.