The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for their international success, the All Blacks have often been regarded as one of the most successful sports teams in history.
The Rugby Championship, formerly known as the Tri Nations Series (1996–2011), is an international rugby union competition contested annually by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. These are traditionally the four highest ranked national teams in the Southern Hemisphere; the Six Nations is a similar tournament in the Northern Hemisphere.
The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks, is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jerseys with white shorts, and their emblem is the Springbok, a native antelope and the national animal of South Africa. The team has represented South African Rugby Union in international rugby union since 30 July 1891, when they played their first test match against a British Isles touring team. Currently, the Springboks are the top-ranked rugby team in the world and reigning World Champions, having won the World Cup a record four times. South Africa have won half of the Rugby World Cups they have participated in and are also the second nation to win the World Cup consecutively.
The Australia men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against the touring British Isles team.
The Samoa national rugby union team represents the Samoa Rugby Union in men's international rugby union. They are also known as "Manu Samoa", which is thought to derive from the name of a Samoan warrior. They perform a traditional Samoan challenge called the siva tau before each game. Samoa Rugby Union were formerly members of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance (PIRA) along with Fiji and Tonga. They are ranked 11th in the world.
Bryan Gary Habana OIS is a South African former professional rugby union player. Playing mainly as a wing, he is widely considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. He played for the Golden Lions, the Blue Bulls and Western Province in South Africa, for the Bulls and the Stormers in Super Rugby, and for Toulon in the French Top 14, and won 124 caps for the South Africa national team.
The 2004 Tri Nations Series, an annual rugby union competition between the national teams of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, was the ninth in the series. The competition is organised by SANZAR, a consortium of the three countries' rugby union federations. The series was contested in its original double round-robin format, with each team playing the others twice.
The 2003 Tri Nations Series was contested from 12 July to 16 August between the national rugby union teams of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. New Zealand won the tournament for the fifth time.
The 2002 Tri Nations Series was contested from 13 July to 17 August between the Australia, New Zealand and South Africa national rugby union teams. The All Blacks won the tournament.
The 2001 Tri Nations Series was contested from 21 July to 1 September between the Australia, New Zealand and South Africa national rugby union teams. The Wallabies won another thrilling game at Stadium Australia in Sydney with number eight Toutai Kefu scoring a try at the death in captain John Eales' final test match, to successfully defend the Tri Nations trophy.
The 1997 Tri Nations Series was the second Tri Nations Series, an international rugby union competition contested by the men's national teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It was played from 19 July to 23 August, with each team playing each of the others twice – once at home and once away. New Zealand won all four of their matches to claim a second straight title.
The 1998 Tri Nations Series was contested from 11 July to 22 August between the Australia, New Zealand and South Africa national rugby union teams. The Springboks won the tournament.
The 1999 Tri Nations Series was the fourth Tri Nations Series, a rugby union tournament contested by the men's national teams of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It was contested from 10 July to 28 August 1999. New Zealand won the title, winning three of their four matches, including both against South Africa; however, they split the series against Australia, who retained the Bledisloe Cup, having won it outright the previous year.
New Zealand and South Africa have been playing Test Match Rugby against each other since 1921 when the All Blacks beat the Springboks in Dunedin 13–5. It is argued to be the biggest rivalry in World Rugby history. There is considerable history behind these matches, much of it off the field. In 1981, there were numerous protests in New Zealand over the Springboks coming to tour New Zealand due to the then South African government's policy of Apartheid. Consequently, subsequent tours were cancelled and the All Blacks and Springboks did not meet again until August 1992, in Johannesburg, when the Springboks were re-admitted to World Rugby. Until 1996 New Zealand had never won a series in South Africa but South Africa had won a series in New Zealand in 1937. The rivalry was close for eighty years between 1921-2000, when New Zealand led the head-to-head by 27-26. In the first 17 years of the 21st century, New Zealand compiled a 30-9 record over South Africa, but the appointment of Rassie Erasmus as coach of the Springboks in 2018 resulted in the rivalry reigniting, as South Africa lead the series 7-5 since his appointment.
The 2009 Tri Nations Series was the fourteenth annual Tri Nations rugby union series between the national rugby union teams of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, respectively nicknamed the All Blacks, Wallabies, and Springboks. The Springboks secured the season crown in their final match on 12 September, defeating the defending series champion All Blacks 32–29 in Hamilton.
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 22–3.
The 2011 Tri Nations Series was the sixteenth annual Tri Nations rugby union series between the national rugby union teams of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, respectively nicknamed the All Blacks, Wallabies and Springboks. It was also the last series in which only these three teams participated. In 2012, Argentina's Pumas joined this competition, which was rebranded as The Rugby Championship. This made this series the last under the Tri Nations name until 2020, when South Africa withdrew due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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 2014 Rugby Championship was the third edition of the expanded annual southern hemisphere Rugby Championship consisting of Argentina, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. The tournament was won by New Zealand, with South Africa second, Australia third, and Argentina last.
The 2020 Tri Nations Series was the seventeenth edition of the annual southern hemisphere competition, involving Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. On 16 October 2020, 2019 Rugby Championship winners and 2019 Rugby World Cup champions South Africa confirmed their withdrawal from the originally planned 2020 Rugby Championship due to South African government travel restrictions, player welfare and safety concerns related to COVID-19. This meant that the competition temporarily returned to its previous Tri-Nations format - played across six weekends with each team playing each other twice.
New Zealand (1st title)
