The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for any of the Home Nations – the national teams of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The Lions are a Test side and generally select international players, but they can pick uncapped players available to any one of the four unions. The team currently tours every four years, with these rotating among Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The most recent series, the 2017 series against New Zealand, was drawn 1-1.
The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks, is governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jerseys with white shorts, and their emblems are the Springbok and the King Protea. The team has been representing South Africa in international rugby union since 30 July 1891, when they played their first test match against a British Isles touring team.
The Australia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is controlled by Rugby Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against the touring British Isles team.
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it became an affiliate to the International Rugby Football Board, now known as World Rugby, the governing body of rugby union for the world. It dropped the word "Football" from its name in 2006. The brand name New Zealand Rugby was adopted in 2013.
The Fiji national rugby union team competes every four years at the Rugby World Cup, and their best performances were the 1987 and 2007 tournaments when they defeated Argentina and Wales respectively to reach the quarterfinals. Fiji also regularly plays test matches during the June and November test windows. Fiji also plays in the Pacific Tri-Nations, and has won the most Pacific Tri-Nations Championships of the three participating teams.
The New Zealand Barbarians, nicknamed the "Baa-Baas", are an invitational rugby union team which has been a major part of New Zealand rugby since the team was founded in 1937 by two ex-All Blacks, Ronald Bush, and Hubert McLean who captained their first game in 1938.
Eric William Thomas Tindill was a New Zealand sportsman. Tindill held a number of unique records: he was the oldest ever Test cricketer at the time of his death, the only person to play Tests for New Zealand in both cricket and rugby union, and the only person ever to play Tests in both sports, referee a rugby union Test, and umpire a cricket Test: a unique "double-double".
Rugby union is the unofficial national sport of New Zealand. The national team, the All Blacks, ranks as the top international team in the world. The sport has been known in New Zealand from 1870. The top domestic competitions are the semi-professional ITM Cup and amateur Heartland Championship, and above them Super Rugby, in which New Zealand has five franchises. The country co-hosted and won the first ever Rugby World Cup in 1987, and hosted and won the 2011 Rugby World Cup. They are the current world champions for men and women. They are also the current World Champions in 7s rugby for men and women.
The 1908 British Isles tour to New Zealand and Australia was the seventh tour by a British Isles team and the fourth to New Zealand and Australia. The tour is often referred to as the Anglo-Welsh Tour as only English and Welsh players were selected due to the Irish and Scottish Rugby Unions not participating. It is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950.
The 1904 British Isles tour to New Zealand and Australia was the sixth tour by a British Isles rugby union team and the third to New Zealand or Australia. It is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950.
Colin "Col" Windon, was a rugby union player and soldier who captained Australia – the Wallabies – in two Test matches in 1951. By age 18 Windon was playing at flanker for his club Randwick in Sydney's Shute Shield. After serving with the Second Australian Imperial Force in the Pacific Theatre during the Second World War, Windon resumed his rugby career in 1946. He was first selected for Australia for their tour of New Zealand that year. Despite the Wallabies losing both their Tests on tour, Windon impressed with his play.
The 1893 New Zealand tour rugby to Australia was the second tour by the New Zealand national rugby union team to Australia. Ten matches were played against regional and district sides, but no Test matches were played. It was first tour arranged by New Zealand Rugby Football Union which was founded the year before. The only previous New Zealand national team was the side that toured New South Wales in 1884. Immediately before departing for Sydney, the tourists played a match against a "Combined XV" in Wellington, which New Zealand won 7–4.
The 1907–1908 New Zealand rugby tour of Australia and Great Britain was made by a group of New Zealand rugby footballers who played matches in Australia, Ceylon, England and Wales between 1907 and 1908. Most of the matches were played under the rules of the Northern Union, a sport that is today known as rugby league. As such, the team were the immediate predecessors of the New Zealand national rugby league team. The tour had a large role in establishing rugby league in both Australia and New Zealand, and also gave birth to international rugby league. The tour party has come to be known as the professional All Blacks or All Golds, although at the time they were commonly referred to as the All Blacks—a named popularised by the New Zealand rugby union team that toured the Northern Hemisphere in 1905.
The 1921 South Africa rugby union tour of Australia and New Zealand was the third tour made by the Springboks rugby team, and their first tour to Australia and New Zealand. South Africa played three Test matches against the All Blacks. The series was drawn 1–all, and the long-running controversy between the countries over the All Blacks' inclusion of Maori players began.
The 1920 New Zealand tour rugby to New South Wales was the ninth tour by the New Zealand national team to Australia. The three most important matches on the tour were played against the New South Wales selection, and the All Blacks won the 3 match series 3–0.
The 1922 New Zealand tour rugby to New South Wales was the tenth tour by the New Zealand national team to Australia.
The 1924 New Zealand tour rugby to New South Wales was the 11th tour by the New Zealand national rugby union team to Australia.
The 1947 New Zealand tour rugby to Australia was the 17th tour by the New Zealand national rugby union team to Australia.
The 1984 New Zealand rugby union tour of Australia was a series of fourteen rugby union matches played by the New Zealand national rugby union team in Australia in July and August 1984. The All Blacks won thirteen games and lost only the first of the three international matches against the Australia national rugby union team. It was the 25th tour of Australia by a New Zealand team.
