The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament was first held in 1987, when the tournament was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia.
The Six Nations Championship is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales. The current champions are England, who won the 2020 tournament.
The World Rugby Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the competition was formed to promote an elite-level of international rugby sevens and develop the game into a viable commercial product. The competition has been sponsored by banking group HSBC since 2014.
The Calcutta Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the rugby match between England and Scotland. It is the oldest of several trophies awarded under the umbrella of the Six Nations Championship, which include the Millennium Trophy, Centenary Quaich, Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy, Auld Alliance Trophy, and the Doddie Weir Cup.
Rugby sevens, and originally known as seven-a-side rugby, is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40 minute halves. Rugby sevens is administered by World Rugby, the body responsible for rugby union worldwide. The game is popular at all levels, with amateur and club tournaments generally held in the summer months. Sevens is one of the most well distributed forms of rugby, and is popular in parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and especially in the South Pacific.
The Scotland national rugby union team represents Scotland in men's international rugby union is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The team takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship and participates in the Rugby World Cup, which takes place every four years. As of 2 November 2020, Scotland are 7th in the World Rugby Rankings.
The Japan national rugby union team is traditionally the strongest rugby union power in Asia and has enjoyed and endured mixed results against non-Asian teams over the years. Rugby union in Japan is administered by the Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU), which was founded in 1926. They compete annually in the Pacific Nations Cup and previously in the Asia Rugby Championship. They have also participated in every Rugby World Cup since the tournament began in 1987.
Gregor Peter John Townsend, is a Scottish rugby union coach and former player. He is currently the head coach of the Scotland national team having previously been an assistant coach from 2009 to 2012. As a player, he won 82 caps for Scotland and two for the British and Irish Lions. He is a former coach of Glasgow Warriors and was a player-coach for Border Reivers. As well as in Scotland, he played club rugby in Australia, England, France and South Africa.
The Canada national rugby union team represents Canada in men's international rugby union and it is governed by Rugby Canada, and play in red and white. Canada is classified by World Rugby as a tier two rugby nation. Canada competes in competitions such as the Americas Rugby Championship and the Rugby World Cup.
The Hopetoun Cup was established as a perpetual rugby union trophy between Australia and Scotland in 1998. In the spirit of the link between the two countries, it is named after the 7th Earl of Hopetoun, a Scotsman, who, as the then Governor-General of Australia, presided over the Federation of Australia in 1901. Like the Cook Cup, the Hopetoun Cup is crystal and was designed by Royal Doulton in London.
The Lansdowne Cup is a rugby union trophy competed for by Australia and Ireland. Established in 1999, the cup was donated to the Australian Rugby Union by the Lansdowne Club of Sydney. The cup was launched in advance of the two Test matches played during the 1999 Ireland rugby union tour of Australia. The crystal trophy, made by Ireland's Waterford Crystal, for which the two nations compete was unveiled at a pub in Brisbane on 9 June 1999.
The James Bevan Trophy is a rugby union trophy which was created in 2007, and named after James Bevan, the Welsh Australian who was the first ever captain of the Wales rugby union team in 1881. The trophy was established after a decision on 10 May 2007 by the Welsh and Australian rugby unions to celebrate the 100 years of Test rugby between the two sides. Wales are the current holders.
The Centenary Quaich is an international rugby union award contested annually by Ireland and Scotland as part of the Six Nations Championship.
The 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the sixth edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. The tournament was held at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia. New Zealand won the tournament, defeating England 33–0 in the final. Attendance for the tournament was poor, with matches played in mostly empty stadiums.
Jacques Brunel is a French rugby union coach and former player. He was most recently the French national team head coach, having previously been assistant coach for his nation and had led the Italian national team between 2011 and 2016. Brunel, who has spent most of his career in France, formally coached his former team Auch, as well as Bordeaux Bègles, Colomiers, Pau and Perpignan.
Vernon Anthony Cotter is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player, who is currently the head coach of the Fiji national team. He was formally part of the coaching set-up for the successful Crusaders side between 2005 and 2006, before getting an 8-year stint in France with Clermont Auvergne between 2006 and 2014. He is a former International head coach, having coached the Scottish national team, but left his role in May 2017 after it was announced in August 2016 that his contract was not extended by the Scottish Rugby Union. In January 2020 Cotter was appointed as coach of the Fiji national side.
Shuhei Kubo is a Japanese rugby union referee, who is an A class referee in the Japan Rugby Football Union.
The Auld Alliance Trophy is a trophy in rugby union awarded to the winner of the annual Six Nations Championship match between France and Scotland.
The Doddie Weir Cup was established as a perpetual rugby union trophy between Scotland and Wales in 2018. The cup was created to bring awareness to motor neurone disease. Former Scotland international lock Doddie Weir was diagnosed with the illness and the cup was named in his honour.
Theo Sauder is a Canadian rugby union player that plays fullback and fly-half. He currently plays for the Toronto Arrows in Major League Rugby.
