Sport in New Zealand largely reflects the nation's colonial heritage, with some of the most popular sports being rugby union, rugby league, cricket, association football, basketball, horse racing and netball, which are primarily played in Commonwealth countries. New Zealand has enjoyed success in many sports, notably rugby union, rugby league, cricket, America's Cup sailing, world championship and Olympics events, and motorsport.
Rugby league is played across England but is most popular in Northern England, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire where the game originated. These areas are the heartland of rugby league. The sport is also popular in Cumbria where the amateur game is particularly powerful.
Rugby union is a football code within Australia with a history of organised competition dating back to 1864. Although traditionally most popular in Australia's rugby football strongholds of New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, it is played throughout the nation.
The 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup was the sixth edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup and was held in England. The International Rugby Board Executive Committee selected the host union following a recommendation from the Rugby World Cup Limited board after considering bids from the Rugby Football Union and the German Rugby Union – it had been England's third successive bid after being rejected in 2002 and 2006. The tournament was again being organised by the International Rugby Board (IRB) as opposed to the host union, and included five matches for all teams played on 20, 24, 28 August and 1 and 5 September. In May 2009 it was announced that the semi final, 3rd place play off and final would take place at The Stoop and not Twickenham as had previously been suggested. Pool games were held at the Surrey Sports Park in Guildford.
The World Rugby Rankings is a ranking system for national teams in rugby union, managed by World Rugby, the sport's governing body. There are separate men's and women's rankings. The teams of World Rugby's member nations are ranked based on their game results, with the most successful teams being ranked highest. A point system is used, with points being awarded on the basis of the results of World Rugby-recognized international matches. Rankings are based on the team's performance, with more recent results and more significant matches being more heavily weighted to help reflect the current competitive state of a team. The men's ranking system was introduced the month before the 2003 Rugby World Cup, with the first new rankings issued on 8 September 2003, when they were called the "IRB Rankings".
The Women's Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament, contested by the women's national team of the International Rugby League (IRL). The competition has been held since 2000 in Great Britain and since 2008 has been part of the Festival of World Cups. Under the current format, eight teams are separated into two groups of four with the top two qualifying for the semis.
The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament contested by the top national men's representative teams. The tournament is administered by the International Rugby League and was first held in France in 1954, which was the first World Cup held for any form of rugby football.
The Canada women's national rugby union team is governed by Rugby Canada, and plays in red and black. They were ranked 5th in World Rugby's inaugural women's rankings and are currently ranked as the third best team in the world. Canada competes in competitions such as the Pacific Four Series and the Rugby World Cup.
The Fiji women's national rugby union team are a national sporting side of Fiji, representing them at rugby union. They played their first test against Samoa in 2006, and compete annually in the Oceania Rugby Women's Championship. In 2022, they created history when they scored the third-highest points in both Men's and Women's Rugby at the Oceania Championship when they trounced Papua New Guinea 152–0. They made their first Rugby World Cup appearance at the delayed tournament in New Zealand.
Rugby league is played across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but its heartland in parts of the North of England is where the sport is most popular, and is where the majority of professional clubs are based. The sport was first established in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, where 22 clubs split from the Rugby Football Union to form the Northern Rugby Football Union.
The qualification process for the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup began on 14 February 2015. Twelve teams qualified for the tournament, which was held in Ireland in 2017.
This page covers the major events of 2017 in rugby union.
The 2019 Hong Kong Sevens was a rugby sevens tournament that took place at the Hong Kong Stadium between the 5–7 April 2019. It was the 44th edition of the Hong Kong Sevens, and the seventh tournament of the 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series. Sixteen teams competed in the main tournament, while a further twelve competed in a qualifier tournament with the winner getting core team status for the 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series.
The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament currently played every four years. The first tournament was held in 1954, hosted by France who had pushed for such a tournament to be approved. Since the first edition, 14 others have been held at sporadic intervals.
The 2021–22 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was the ninth edition of the global circuit for women's national rugby sevens teams, organised by World Rugby. The ninth edition was meant to be played a year earlier, but the 2021 Series was cancelled due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Phillipa Love is a New Zealand rugby union player. She plays for the Black Ferns internationally and was a member of their 2021 Rugby World Cup champion squad. She also plays for Matatū in the Super Rugby Aupiki competition and represents Canterbury provincially.
The Women's Rugby Super Series is an international rugby union tournament that features the top-ranked women's teams in the world. The Super Series succeeded the Women's Nations Cup in 2015. The tournament began with four teams in 2015 and was played as a round-robin. The number of teams increased to five in 2019. New Zealand won the inaugural tournament.
The 2021 Rugby World Cup Final was the final match of the 2021 Rugby World Cup, the ninth edition of the women's Rugby World Cup and the seventh organised by World Rugby for women's national rugby union teams. The match was contested between two-time champions England, and hosts and five-time and defending champions New Zealand on 12 November 2022 at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, postponed from the previous year. This was the fifth time that these two nations met in a Rugby World Cup final, following the 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2017 editions. New Zealand won the Rugby World Cup for a record sixth time, beating England 34–31. New Zealand captain Ruahei Demant was named the player of the match.
Canada 
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France 
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United States 
