History UsefulNotes / RugbyUnion

* One episode of ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' has Sōsuke putting the once mellow and wimpy school Rugby team through some [[TrainingFromHell extreme training]] that turns them outright '''murderous'''.

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

** '''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. The 2021 edition in New Zealand was postponed to 2022, although it will still be branded as the "2021" edition.

The Italians, meanwhile, had each of the other teams in the Six Nations regarding their match against them as a chance to rack up points and have a bit of fun. Although they defeated defending champions Scotland in their first match in the competition in 2000, they've only managed a dozen wins since, and had a record-breaking losing streak of 36 games between defeating Scotland at Murrayfield in 2015 and Wales in Cardiff in 2022. However, they have managed to notch at least one victory over every team in the competition except for England. [[note]]Rugby is also played in other European nations, although it will be a long time before Holland and Belgium are thought good enough to compete in an expanded Eight Nations contest. UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}, however, remains a country where the game is ''very'' popular, and its national side is thought of as having a lot of potential for the future. Established Six Nations sides, especially England, have visited there even in the days when Romania was a closed Communist dictatorship. Furthermore, since gaining independence from the USSR, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|Europe}} have also become very formidable, with an exceptionally strong forward pack that even the All Blacks have struggled against. And UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} are developing a national training strategy that if it pays off, well, all bets are off...[[/note]]

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

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

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.)

Only not really. Strangely there are many different ways of playing the game. You can\\\

* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} [[Recap/AsterixInBritain in Britain]]'' (and its [[WesternAnimation/AsterixInBritain animated adaptation]]), Britons anachronistically practice rugby circa 50 BC and it's quite the kid-friendly BloodSport. Once feeble ButtMonkey player Hipiphurrax has been given some [[SuperStrength magic potion]], the Camulodonum-Durovernum match quickly turns into a CurbStompBattle. Although Durovernum are the first team to get on the scoreboard, the final score is a thoroughly lopsided Camulodunum DCCCIV (804), Durovernum III (3).

* ''Film/{{Invictus}}'' is pretty much about the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

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

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. Not to mention that with South Africa now included, teams may have to handle the subtropical summers of Durban or the lung-busting altitude of the Highveld (Joburg and Pretoria). The reigning champions are France's La Rochelle.[[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]]\\

* '''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). In 2022–23, the "European" part became an ArtifactTitle with South Africa being fully integrated into the European club structure, though the competition has been branded simply as the "Champions Cup" for the last few years. 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 10 domestic and 5 trans-Tasman regular-season rounds, with each phase followed by a one-off final, 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 France's La Rochelle.[[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]]\\

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

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

* '''Currie Cup''' - the South African equivalent of the NPC. As with the NPC, the CC has a comparatively low profile, but South Africa is sufficiently rugby mad that it still has a decent buzz surrounding it. The competition has been running since 1892, and is probably the most efficient way to watch a combination of rugby, and men getting put through the wringer – South African rugby has a well-deserved reputation for physicality, and the players who compete in it are no shrinking violets. The reigning champions are the Pumas, playing out of the northern city of Mbombela (formerly Nelspruit).

* '''National Provincial Championship''' - New Zealand's premier entirely domestic competition, and thus arguably the highest quality (on average at least) rugby competition in the world. Now having reverted to its original name, though currently with name sponsorship by Aussie hardware chain Bunnings (which also operates in NZ), it is however not particularly well-known outside of rugby mad New Zealand, for the simple reason that Super Rugby is generally treated as the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the domestic competitions listed above. All the same if your primary concern is watching the highest consistent levels of skill on a regular basis the NPC is probably where you should look. It 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 NPC also functions, like all domestic competitions, as the pipeline for the next generation of rugby talent, so it provides an opportunity to see up-and-coming All Blacks as they first arrive on the scene - along with the current ones in fact, because the competition runs at a different time to Super Rugby and thus allows players to keep getting games in and honing their skills when normally they'd be in the off-season. The reigning champions are Waikato, located in the North Island city of Hamilton, about 90 minutes' drive south of Auckland.

** '''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 2021 title in a condensed format due to COVID-19; they also are the most recent Grand Slam winners, having done so in 2020. COVID-19 led to one permanent change to the tournament; from the 2022 edition forward, the women's 6N starts after the men's version ends.

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

* '''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). In 2022–23, the "European" part will become an ArtifactTitle when South Africa becomes fully integrated into the European club structure, though the competition has been branded simply as the "Champions Cup" for the last few years. 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 10 domestic and 5 trans-Tasman regular-season rounds, with each phase followed by a one-off final, 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]]\\

It is also believed by some to be the reason French international rugby had been on the wane through the 2010s,[[note]]although one prominent French coach blames this on the effective extinction of school sport in the country, meaning that most (though not all) young players are technically far behind those in the other rugby powers[[/note]] and it's a tough sell for the neutral given the intense desire of every team to win every game (the league operates a promotion and relegation system with the second-level Rugby Pro D2, and every team is desperate to avoid relegation, meaning games are often played in a very cautious and risk-free manner). The reigning champions are 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 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 a smaller stadium across the road from 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 current 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, divided the 16 sides into four "pods"—Irish, Italian–Scottish, South African and Welsh—though classified in a single league table. Each team plays home and away against sides within its pod, plus single matches against all other sides, resulting in a 18-round league season. The top eight teams on the league table advance to knockout playoffs, with higher seeds hosting except for the final at a predetermined venue. The top team from each pod, plus the four top teams on the league table not already qualified, qualify for the next season's Champions Cup. This includes South Africa, which will now participate fully in European club competitions.

* '''Currie Cup''' - the South African equivalent of the NPC. As with the NPC, the CC has a comparatively low profile, but South Africa is sufficiently rugby mad that it still has a decent buzz surrounding it. The competition has been running since 1892, and is probably the most efficient way to watch a combination of rugby, and men getting put through the wringer – South African rugby has a well-deserved reputation for physicality, and the players who compete in it are no shrinking violets. The reigning champions are the Blue Bulls, playing out of Pretoria as the main feeder side for the Bulls of the URC.

* On a much lower profile to the above competitions, the Welsh '''Premiership''' is the highest level of purely domestic Rugby in Wales and was where (prior to the consolidation of Welsh professional Rugby into regional sides in what is now the URC) most of the Welsh national side played their week-in-week-out Rugby, though it is now a mixture of professional and semi-pro players. With many of the biggest teams coming from small towns or large villages in the notoriously rainy Valleys, in contrast to the running Rugby displayed in the Southern Hemisphere, this is often your archetypical muddy, cold, windy, rough and unpleasant Rugby environment. [[RugbyIsSlaughter Rugby is slaughter]] indeed.

Indeed, the All Blacks are unique in international sports in that they have a winning record against ''every single team'' that they have ever played.[[note]]The US women's soccer team is almost there, but Poland managed a draw in 1989 in the teams' only encounter to date. Czechoslovakia managed a draw in their only meeting in 1988, but FIFA considers the Czech Republic that country's successor for record-keeping purposes, and the USWNT has a win and a draw in the two post-Velvet Divorce matches. By the way, the only team that's even won a third of its matches against the USWNT is Norway. The US women's basketball team is also almost there, but it split its only two games against the USSR; while it's so far unbeaten in three tries against Russia, FIBA (unlike FIFA) does not consider Russia as having inherited the USSR's results.[[/note]] Consequently, it has historically been considered a major achievement for any of the Northern Hemisphere superpowers (England, France, Ireland and Wales) to even run the All Blacks close: France have won the most encounters with New Zealand with 13 from 62. England have won 8 from 42, Wales 3 from 35 (and they haven't won since 1953...) and Ireland 3 from 33, 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 these days; back in the 80's the reverse was true, mainly because League was professional while Union was still amateur) 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.

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. Although they defeated defending champions Scotland in their first match in the competition in 2000, they've only managed a handful of wins since, and had a record-breaking losing streak of 36 games between defeating Scotland at Murrayfield in 2015 and Wales in Cardiff in 2022. However, they have managed to notch at least one victory over every team in the competition except for England. [[note]]Rugby is also played in other European nations, although it will be a long time before Holland and Belgium are thought good enough to compete in an expanded Eight Nations contest. UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}, however, remains a country where the game is ''very'' popular, and its national side is thought of as having a lot of potential for the future. Established Six Nations sides, especially England, have visited there even in the days when Romania was a closed Communist dictatorship. Furthermore, since gaining independence from the USSR, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|Europe}} have also become very formidable, with an exceptionally strong forward pack that even the All Blacks have struggled against. And UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} are developing a national training strategy that if it pays off, well, all bets are off...[[/note]]

Indeed, the All Blacks are unique in international sports in that they have a winning record against ''every single team'' that they have ever played.[[note]]The US women's soccer team is almost there, but Poland managed a draw in 1989 in the teams' only encounter to date. Czechoslovakia managed a draw in their only meeting in 1988, but FIFA considers the Czech Republic that country's successor for record-keeping purposes, and the USWNT won in their only matchup to date in 2000. By the way, the only team that's even won a third of its matches against the USWNT is Norway. The US women's basketball team is also almost there, but it split its only two games against the USSR; while it's so far unbeaten in three tries against Russia, FIBA (unlike FIFA) does not consider Russia as having inherited the USSR's results.[[/note]] Consequently, it has historically been considered a major achievement for any of the Northern Hemisphere superpowers (England, France, Ireland and Wales) to even run the All Blacks close: France have won the most encounters with New Zealand with 13 from 62. England have won 8 from 42, Wales 3 from 35 (and they haven't won since 1953...) and Ireland 3 from 33, 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%.

* 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 2021 championship, which was played behind closed doors 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.

** '''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 2021 title in a condensed format due to COVID-19; they also are the most recent Grand Slam winners, having done so in 2020.

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 that 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). With the new teams joining, the competition has been rebranded as '''Super Rugby Pacific''', and will no longer be split into conferences. Instead, each team will play a full round-robin schedule, plus three extra matches with an emphasis on regional derbies. The top eight teams at the end of the regular season will advance to a traditional knockout playoff.\\

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.

* ''Film/AtlanticWall'': British UsefulNotes/WorldWarII bomber pilot Jeff (Creator/PeterMcEnery) practices UsefulNotes/{{rugby|Union}} when he's not on air raid missions, and the sport is SeriousBusiness for him and his father. Prior to the film, he [[UnnecessaryRoughness ended up in a fist fight]] with the referee (who is also his superior in the Royal Air Force) that caused a black eye to the latter, because said referee refused to validate a legit try he scored.

* ''Film/AtlanticWall'': Rugby is SeriousBusiness for British UsefulNotes/WorldWarII bomber pilot Jeff (Creator/PeterMcEnery) when he's not on air raids, and he [[SoreLoser doesn't take defeat that well]] ([[UnnecessaryRoughness causing a black eye]] to the referee, who happens to be his bomber squadron commander and is implied to not be particularly good at the referee job).

* ''Film/AtlanticWall'': British UsefulNotes/WorldWarII bomber pilot Jeff (Creator/PeterMcEnery) doubles as a rugby player and [[SoreLoser doesn't take defeat]] that well ([[UnnecessaryRoughness causing a black eye]] to the referee, who happens to be his bomber squadron commander).

* ''Film/AtlanticWall'': British UsefulNotes/WoldWarII bomber pilot Jeff (Creator/PeterMcEnery) doubles as a rugby player and [[SoreLoser doesn't take defeat]] that well ([[UnnecessaryRoughness causing a black eye]] to the referee, who happens to be his bomber squadron commander).

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 (32 in a row following the 2021 [=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]]

Indeed, the All Blacks are unique in international sports in that they have a winning record against ''every single team'' that they have ever played.[[note]]The US women's soccer team is almost there, but Poland managed a draw in 1989 in the teams' only encounter to date. Czechoslovakia managed a draw in their only meeting in 1988, but the Czech Republic is considered that country's successor for record-keeping purposes, and the USWNT won in their only matchup to date in 2000. By the way, the only team that's even won a third of its matches against the USWNT is Norway.[[/note]] Consequently, it has historically been considered a major achievement for any of the Northern Hemisphere superpowers (England, France, Ireland and Wales) to even run the All Blacks close: France have won the most encounters with New Zealand with 13 from 62. England have won 8 from 42, Wales 3 from 35 (and they haven't won since 1953...) and Ireland 3 from 33, 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%.

* '''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). New Zealand are the reigning champions, having won a 2020 edition that reverted to its prior name of Tri Nations after South Africa pulled out due to COVID-19 issues. All four sides and the "Rugby Championship" name are set to return in 2021.

* '''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.

* '''National Provincial Championship''' - New Zealand's premier entirely domestic competition, and thus arguably the highest quality (on average at least) rugby competition in the world. Now having reverted to its original name, though currently with name sponsorship by Aussie hardware chain Bunnings (which also operates in NZ), it is however not particularly well-known outside of rugby mad New Zealand, for the simple reason that Super Rugby is generally treated as the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the domestic competitions listed above. All the same if your primary concern is watching the highest consistent levels of skill on a regular basis the NPC is probably where you should look. It 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 NPC also functions, like all domestic competitions, as the pipeline for the next generation of rugby talent, so it provides an opportunity to see up-and-coming All Blacks as they first arrive on the scene - along with the current ones in fact, because the competition runs at a different time to Super Rugby and thus allows players to keep getting games in and honing their skills when normally they'd be in the off-season. The reigning champions are Tasman, located in the north of the South Island.

* '''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). As noted above, the Drua would end up being [[HesBack revived]] as a Super Rugby side effective in 2022.

* '''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).\\

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=], later as [=Pro14=], and now as the United Rugby Championship (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[[labelnote:*]]the Māori name for the country[[/labelnote]]. 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 first stage is entirely domestic, with Super Rugby Aotearoa and Super Rugby AU holding a 10-round league season, followed by a one-off final between the top two teams on the ladder.
* All 10 teams then play in Super Rugby Trans-Tasman, conducted in a single-table format with each team playing a full round-robin against teams from the opposite country, followed by a final between the top two teams on the table.
The first champions under the current format are the Reds in Australia (playing out of Brisbane), the Crusaders in NZ (from Christchurch in the South Island), and the Blues (from NZ's largest city of Auckland) in Trans-Tasman.\\

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 that 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 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 within its pod, plus single matches against all other sides, resulting in a 18-round league season. The top eight teams on the league table 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.

Indeed, the All Blacks are unique in international sports in that they have a winning record against ''every single team'' that they have ever played.[[note]]The US women's soccer team is almost there, but Poland managed a draw in 1989 in the teams' only encounter to date. Czechoslovakia managed a draw in their only meeting in 1988, but the Czech Republic is considered that country's successor for record-keeping purposes, and the USWNT won in their only matchup to date in 2000. By the way, the only team that's even won a third of its matches against the USWNT is Norway.[[/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%.

* '''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). In 2022–23, the "European" part will become an ArtifactTitle when South Africa becomes fully integrated into the European club structure, though the competition has been branded simply as the "Champions Cup" for the last few years. 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.\\