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 New Zealand national rugby league team has represented New Zealand in rugby league since 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the native bird of that name. The team's colours are black and white, with the dominant colour being black, and the players perform a haka before every match they play as a challenge to their opponents. The New Zealand Kiwis are currently third in the RLIF World Rankings. Since the 1980s, most New Zealand representatives have been based overseas, in the professional National Rugby League and Super League competitions. Before that, players were selected entirely from clubs in domestic New Zealand leagues.
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.
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.
John (Johnny) Graves was an Australian rugby league footballer of the late 1940s and early 1950s. An Australian international representative goal-kicking wing, he played his club football for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, with whom he won back-to-back premierships in 1950-51.
John Rees Glyn Stephens was a Welsh international number 8 who played club rugby for Tonmawr RFC and Neath. He won 32 caps for Wales and was selected to play in the British Lions on the 1950 tour of Australia and New Zealand. He was the son of a past Welsh rugby international, Glyn Stephens, who was also president of the Welsh Rugby Union.
1949 saw the second full tour of South Africa by a representative New Zealand rugby union team. The All Blacks achieved a record of 13 wins, 7 losses and 4 draws, and they lost the test series 4–0.
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 first clash in rugby union between Australia and New Zealand took place in a test match on 15 August 1903 in Sydney, New South Wales. On that occasion, New Zealand won by 22-3.
William Rex Willis was a Welsh international rugby union scrum-half who played club rugby for Cardiff and invitational rugby for the Barbarians. He won 21 caps for Wales and was selected to play in the British Lions on the 1950 tour of Australia and New Zealand.
Marthinus Theunis "Tjol" Lategan was a South African rugby union centre. Along with Ryk van Schoor he formed one of the great post-war centre partnerships in rugby. Lategan played club rugby for University of Stellenbosch and provincial rugby for Western Province. He was capped for South Africa eleven times between 1949 and 1953 first representing the team against the 1949 touring New Zealand side. He was later selected for the 1951–52 South Africa rugby tour of Great Britain, Ireland and France. The touring team is seen as one of the greatest South African teams, winning 30 of the 31 matches, including all five internationals.
Kevin Lawrence Skinner was a rugby union player from New Zealand who won 20 full caps for the All Blacks, two of them as captain. He was also a heavyweight boxer, winning the New Zealand championship in 1947.
The 1996 New Zealand rugby union tour of South Africa was a historic tour in the history of New Zealand rugby. The All Blacks won the test series 2–1 and became known as the incomparables for their feat of winning a series in South Africa for the first time.
The 1957 New Zealand tour rugby to Australia was the 19th tour by the New Zealand national rugby union team to Australia.
Neville Cottrell (1927–2014) was an Australian rugby union footballer. A Queensland and national representative forward, he played fourteen Test matches for Australia, two as captain.
Keith Eric Gudsell was a New Zealand rugby union footballer who played for both the country of his birth and Australia. A midfield back, Gudsell represented Manawatu, Wanganui and Waikato at a provincial level in New Zealand, and New South Wales at state level in Australia. He was a member of the New Zealand national side, the All Blacks, on their 1949 tour of South Africa, appearing in six matches but no internationals. Having graduated with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science from Massey Agricultural College in 1949, Gudsell then studied veterinary science at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1954. During this time he played three tests for Australia against the touring All Blacks in 1951.
