England
England is a country, part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to Scotland to the north-northwest; the Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south; the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century, since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world; the English language, the Anglican Church, English law – the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world – developed in England, the country's parliamentary system of government has been adopted by other nations.
The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's terrain is chiefly low hills and plains in central and southern England. However, there is upland and mountainous terrain in the west; the capital is London, which has the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. England's population of over 55 million comprises 84% of the population of the United Kingdom concentrated around London, the South East, conurbations in the Midlands, the North West, the North East, Yorkshire, which each developed as major industrial regions during the 19th century; the Kingdom of England – which after 1535 included Wales – ceased being a separate sovereign state on 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union put into effect the terms agreed in the Treaty of Union the previous year, resulting in a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The name "England" is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means "land of the Angles"; the Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages. The Angles came from the Anglia peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea; the earliest recorded use of the term, as "Engla londe", is in the late-ninth-century translation into Old English of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The term was used in a different sense to the modern one, meaning "the land inhabited by the English", it included English people in what is now south-east Scotland but was part of the English kingdom of Northumbria; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded that the Domesday Book of 1086 covered the whole of England, meaning the English kingdom, but a few years the Chronicle stated that King Malcolm III went "out of Scotlande into Lothian in Englaland", thus using it in the more ancient sense.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its modern spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, in which the Latin word Anglii is used; the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars. How and why a term derived from the name of a tribe, less significant than others, such as the Saxons, came to be used for the entire country and its people is not known, but it seems this is related to the custom of calling the Germanic people in Britain Angli Saxones or English Saxons to distinguish them from continental Saxons of Old Saxony between the Weser and Eider rivers in Northern Germany. In Scottish Gaelic, another language which developed on the island of Great Britain, the Saxon tribe gave their name to the word for England. An alternative name for England is Albion; the name Albion referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus the 4th-century BC De Mundo: "Beyond the Pillars of Hercules is the ocean that flows round the earth.
In it are two large islands called Britannia. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, i.e. it was written in the Graeco-Roman period or afterwards. The word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins, it either derives from a cognate of the Latin albus meaning white, a reference to the white cliffs of Dover or from the phrase the "island of the Albiones" in the now lost Massaliote Periplus, attested through Avienus' Ora Maritima to which the former served as a source. Albion is now applied to England in a more poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England and made popular by its use in Arthurian legend; the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximate
Queensland Reds
The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996 they were a representative team selected from the rugby union club competitions in Queensland. With the introduction of the professional Super 12 competition they moved to a model where players are contracted to the Reds through the Queensland Rugby Union rather than selected on the basis of club form. From 1996 to 2005 they were one of three Australian teams competing in the Super 12 competition, alongside the New South Wales Waratahs and the ACT Brumbies. Queensland finished as minor premiers in 1996 and 1999. From 2006 to 2010, they competed in the expanded Super 14 competition as one of four Australian sides. Beginning in 2011, they are one of five Australian sides in the expanded and renamed Super Rugby, winning the competition in its first season in its new format. In 2012 they finished first in the Australian conference. Refer to Rugby union in Queensland The first recorded games of rugby in Queensland were played in 1876, when the existing Brisbane Football Club, switched to rugby to align with the newly formed'Rangers' and'Bonnet Rouge' football clubs.
However, it was reported that the game was soon varied to suit the preferences of the local players, “rugby, with Brisbane variations, was the game played”. Most of these games were played at the Queen's Park (now part of the City Botanic Gardens. However, the Brisbane Courier reported in 1879 that the Brisbane FC had reverted to what had become known as the'Victorian rules', “in place of the Rugby Union Rules played by the club during the last three seasons”. In 1880, the club became a foundation member of the Queensland Football Association, along with Wallaroo and Athenians, where it was decided to recognise and play mostly'Victorian rules', with occasional games of'Rugby' rules. However, in 1882, a Brisbane FC representative arranged a rugby match against the Sydney Wallaroos Rugby club, after the NSWRU offered to pay all costs associated with the match. Brisbane advocates of the Victorian rules game reacted angrily and declared that no QFA player would be permitted to play under rugby rules, which led to the formation of the Northern Rugby Union in late 1883.
The following years saw increasing popularity of the rugby game. As rugby historian Sean Fagan noted: The defining moment in the code battle came with the 1886 Queensland side, who defeated NSW for the first time in Sydney. “The success of this team undoubtedly won the day for rugby game in Queensland. The Victorian game supporters were struggling hard to uphold the premier position they had gained but after the brilliant performance of the 1886 team, who lost only one match through their tour, the rugby game became popular and the next season several new clubs were formed and the Victorian game began to wane”. In 1883, the first inter-colonial match in Brisbane took place, with Queensland defeating New South Wales 12 to 11 at the Eagle Farm Racecourse. In 1896 the first Queensland team departed for a tour of New Zealand, where they played New Zealand at Athletic Park in Wellington on 15 August, losing 9 to nil. In 1899 Queensland recorded their first win against an international team, defeating Great Britain 11 to 3 at the Exhibition Ground.
The Queensland team remained a representative team selected from the rugby union clubs within the state, until the advent of the Super rugby competition in the 1990s. With the start up of rugby league as well as World War I, Queensland rugby was dormant for a number of years, the QRU was disbanded in 1919 and was not be revived until the late 1920s. In 1928 the QRU was re-formed, the GPS competition and major clubs soon returned; the game struggled during World War II, but growth was nonetheless apparent, with the advent of the Queensland Junior Rugby Union and the Country Rugby Union. In 1950 the QRU secured the Normanby Oval at nominal rent from Brisbane Grammar School, before they moved into Ballymore Stadium in 1966, which would serve as the spiritual home of Queensland. In 1980 Queensland defeated the All Blacks, their first win against New Zealand; the match was played at Ballymore on 6 July and Queensland won 9 to 3. Two seasons centenary celebrations took place, with Queensland defeating New South Wales 41 to 7 in the celebratory match.
The first Super 10 was held in 1993. Queensland were grouped in Pool A alongside Auckland, Western Samoa and Otago. Queensland finished in fourth place; the subsequent Super 10 competition of 1994 saw Queensland finish at the top of Pool A on 13 points, edging out North Harbour on for and against differential to finish at the top. The Queensland Reds went on to play the winner of South African side, Natal; the Reds won 21 points to 10 at Kings Park Stadium in Durban. The following season was more successful for the Reds, who were playing in Pool B for the 1995 season, they finished the season with 16 points, four points clear of second placed team in their pool, the Free State. South African team Transvaal had finished at the top of Pool A and the final was to be decided at Ellis Park in Johannesburg. Queensland won the final 30–16, thus became back-to-back champions. With rugby union going professional, there was a reworking of competitions; the SANZAR partnership was formed between the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, the South African Rugby Football Union and the Australian Rugby Union and the Super 12 was born.
In the 1996 season Queensland finished at the top of the
World Rugby
World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition, it organises a number of other international rugby competitions, such as the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the World Under 20 Championship, the Pacific Nations Cup. World Rugby's headquarters are in Ireland, its membership now comprises 120 national unions. Each member country must be a member of one of the six regional unions into which the world is divided: Africa, Americas North, Europe, South America and Oceania. World Rugby was founded as the International Rugby Football Board in 1886 by Scotland and Ireland, with England joining in 1890. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa became full members in 1949. France became a member in 1978 and a further eighty members joined from 1987 to 1999; the body was renamed the International Rugby Board in 1998, took up its current name of World Rugby in November 2014.
In 2009, the International Olympic Committee voted to include rugby sevens in the 2016 Summer Olympics. World Rugby gained membership of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations in 2010; until 1885 the laws of rugby football were made by England as the founder nation. However, following a disputed try in an international between Scotland and England in 1884, letters were exchanged in which England claimed that they made the laws, the try should stand. Scotland refused to play England in the 1885 Home Nations Championship. Following the dispute, the home unions of Scotland and Wales decided to form an international union whose membership would agree on the standard rules of rugby football; the three nations met in Dublin in 1886. On 5 December 1887, committee members of the Irish Rugby Football Union, Scottish Rugby Union and Welsh Rugby Union met in Manchester and wrote up the first four principles of the International Rugby Football Board. England refused to take part in the founding of the IRFB, stating that they should have greater representation, as they had more clubs.
The England Union refused to accept the IRFB as the recognised lawmaker of the game. This led to the IRFB taking the stance of member countries not playing England until they joined, no games were played against England in 1888 and 1889. In 1890 England joined the IRFB; the same year, the IRFB wrote the first international laws of rugby union. In 1893, the IRFB was faced with the divide between amateurism and professionalism, nicknamed the "Great Schism". Following the introduction of working class men to the game in Northern England, clubs began paying "broken time" payments to players, due to the loss of earnings from playing on a Saturday. Cumberland County Union complained of another club using monetary incentives to lure players, leading to the IRFB conducting an enquiry; the IRFB was warned by all the chief clubs in Lancashire and Yorkshire that any punishment would lead to the clubs seceding from the union. The debate over broken time payments caused the 22 leading clubs in Yorkshire and Lancashire to form the Northern Rugby Football Union.
The competing unions' laws of the game diverged immediately. England's seats on the IRFB were reduced from six to four in 1911; the Australian Rugby Union, New Zealand Rugby Football Union and South African Rugby Board joined the board with one seat each in 1948, with England's seats being reduced to two, the same as the other home nations. The three Southern Hemisphere unions were given a second seat each in 1958; the French Rugby Federation was admitted in 1978 and the Argentine Rugby Union, Canadian Rugby Union, Italian Rugby Federation and Japan Rugby Football Union were admitted in 1991. In 2016, Georgia and the USA were added to the voting Council with one vote each. Additionally, current Council members Argentina and Italy were granted a second representative and vote; the six regional associations represented on the Council received an additional vote. It is thought. In 1983 and 1984 the Australian and New Zealand Rugby Football Unions each proposed hosting such a tournament; the following year the board committed to conduct a feasibility study.
A year there was another meeting in Paris, the Union subsequently voted on the idea. It was the South African Rugby Board's vote that proved to be crucial in setting up a tied vote, as they voted in favour though they knew they would be excluded due to the sporting boycott because of their apartheid policies. English and Welsh votes were changed, the vote was won 10 to 6; as at January 2017, World Rugby has 17 associated unions. Membership of World Rugby is a four-step process: A Union must apply to become an associate member of its Regional Union After all membership criteria are met, including one year as an associate member, the Union is admitted to the Regional Union as a full member After completion of stages 1 and 2, two years as a full member of a Regional Union, the Union may apply to become an Associate member of World Rugby; as an associate member, the union can participate in World Rugby funded tournaments but not the Rugby World Cup Following two years of associate membership of World Rugby, the union may apply to become a Full MemberRegional Unions Six regional associations, which represent each continent, are affiliated with World Rugby and help to develop the
Rugby World Cup
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 winners are awarded the Webb Ellis Cup, named after William Webb Ellis, the Rugby School pupil who, according to a popular legend, invented rugby by picking up the ball during a football game. Four countries have won the trophy. New Zealand are the current champions, having defeated Australia in the final of the 2015 tournament in England; the tournament is administered by the sport's international governing body. Sixteen teams were invited to participate in the inaugural tournament in 1987, however since 1999 twenty teams have taken part. Japan will host the 2019 Rugby World Cup and France will host in 2023. Qualifying tournaments were introduced for the second tournament, where eight of the sixteen places were contested in a twenty-four-nation tournament; the inaugural World Cup in 1987, did not involve any qualifying process.
In 2003 and 2007, the qualifying format allowed for eight of the twenty available positions to be filled by automatic qualification, as the eight quarter finalists of the previous tournament enter its successor. The remaining twelve positions were filled by continental qualifying tournaments. Positions were filled by three teams from the Americas, one from Asia, one from Africa, three from Europe and two from Oceania. Another two places were allocated for repechage; the first repechage place was determined by a match between the runners-up from the Africa and Europe qualifying tournaments, with that winner playing the Americas runner-up to determine the place. The second repechage position was determined between the runners-up from the Asia and Oceania qualifiers; the current format allows for 12 of the 20 available positions to be filled by automatic qualification, as the teams who finish third or better in the group stages of the previous tournament enter its successor. The qualification system for the remaining eight places is region-based, with a total eight teams allocated for Europe, five for Oceania, three for the Americas, two for Africa, one for Asia.
The last place is determined by an intercontinental play-off. The 2015 tournament involved twenty nations competing over six weeks. There were a pool and a knockout. Nations were divided into A through to D, of five nations each; the teams were seeded before the start of the tournament, with the seedings taken from the World Rankings in December 2012. The four highest-ranked teams were drawn into pools A to D; the next four highest-ranked teams were drawn into pools A to D, followed by the next four. The remaining positions in each pool were filled by the qualifiers. Nations play four pool games. A bonus points system is used during pool play. If two or more teams are level on points, a system of criteria is used to determine the higher ranked; the winner and runner-up of each pool enter the knockout stage. The knockout stage consists of quarter- and semi-finals, the final; the winner of each pool is placed against a runner-up of a different pool in a quarter-final. The winner of each quarter-final goes on to the semi-finals, the respective winners proceed to the final.
Losers of the semi-finals contest for third place, called the'Bronze Final'. If a match in the knockout stages ends in a draw, the winner is determined through extra time. If that fails, the match goes into the next team to score any points is the winner; as a last resort, a kicking competition is used. Prior to the Rugby World Cup, there was no global rugby union competition, but there were a number of other tournaments. One of the oldest is the annual Six Nations Championship, which started in 1883 as the Home Nations Championship, a tournament between England, Ireland and Wales, it expanded to the Five Nations in 1910. France did not participate from 1931 to 1939, during which period it reverted to a Home Nations championship. In 2000, Italy joined the competition. Rugby union was played at the Summer Olympic Games, first appearing at the 1900 Paris games and subsequently at London in 1908, Antwerp in 1920, Paris again in 1924. France won the first gold medal Australasia, with the last two being won by the United States.
However rugby union ceased to be on Olympic program after 1924. The idea of a Rugby World Cup had been suggested on numerous occasions going back to the 1950s, but met with opposition from most unions in the IRFB; the idea resurfaced several times in the early 1980s, with the Australian Rugby Union in 1983, the New Zealand Rugby Union in 1984 independently proposing the establishment of a world cup. A proposal was again put to the IRFB in 1985 and this time passed 10–6; the delegates from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all voted for the proposal, the delegates from Ireland and Scotland against. The inaugural tournament, jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand, was held in May and June 1987, with sixteen nations taking part. New Zealand became the first champions, defeating France 29–9 in the final; the subsequent 1991 tournament was hosted by England, with matches
Sitiveni Rabuka
Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, OBE, MSD, OStJ, is best known as the instigator of two military coups that shook Fiji in 1987. He was democratically elected as Prime Minister of Fiji, serving from 1992 to 1999, he went on to serve as Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs, served as Chairman of the Cakaudrove Provincial Council from 2001 to 2008. He was elected to this position on 24 May 2001 and re-elected for another three-year term on 13 April 2005. On 24 June 2016, Rabuka was elected as leader of the Social Democratic Liberal Party, succeeding Leader of the Opposition Ro Teimumu Kepa, who publicly disapproved of Rabuka's nomination to replace her. On 26 November 2018, Rabuka was appointed as the leader of the Opposition to Parliament, following the 2018 election defeat. Rabuka was the only nomination for the position and his nomination was moved by Ro Teimumu Kepa and seconded by Biman Prasad; the son of Kolinio Epeli Vanuacicila Rabuka and Salote Lomaloma Rabuka, he comes from the village of Drekeniwai on Vanua Levu, one of Fiji's two major islands.
He was educated at Queen Victoria School. He represented Fiji in shot put, hammer throw and the decathlon at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games. Rabuka was trained in New Zealand army schools, from which he graduated in 1973, did postgraduate work at the Indian Defence Services Staff College in 1979, at the Australian Joint Services Staff College in 1982, he was a senior operation plans manager for UNIFIL peacekeeping troops in Lebanon in 1980 and 1981. On his return home, he was appointed Army Chief of Staff. From 1982 to 1987, he was an operations and training officer for the Fijian army, except for a two-year absence when he commanded the Fijian Battalion as part of the Multinational Force and Observers peacekeeping force in the Sinai. For his service in Lebanon, Rabuka was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1980 and the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1981. Rabuka, by now a colonel, emerged from obscurity on 14 May 1987 when he staged the first of two military coups to reassert ethnic Fijian supremacy, following the 1987 election, which had brought an Indo-Fijian -dominated government to power.
Deposing the elected government, he handed power over to the Governor-General, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, a high chief whom he expected to implement ethnic Fijian interests. When, Ganilau attempted to reinstate the abrogated constitution, Rabuka carried out a second coup on 28 September that year. At first he pledged his allegiance to the Queen, but on 7 October he issued a decree proclaimed a republic, abolishing the 113-year link to the British Monarchy, he handed over power on 5 December to an interim administration, headed by Ganilau as President and Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara as Prime Minister, but remained Commander of the Army and Minister of Home Affairs, the National Youth Service, the Auxiliary Army Service. Ganilau and Mara did not feel strong enough to dismiss Rabuka, but the public support they enjoyed as high chiefs was such that he did not feel strong enough to depose them. An uneasy truce existed between Mara on the one hand and Rabuka on the other. Rabuka was seen as a hero by the Indigenous members when he overthrew Fiji's first Indian government to install an indigenous Fijian ruling class.
During the time of the coup, Rabuka was sometimes referred to in the press as "Colonel Steve Rambo." In 2006, Rabuka apologised for having executed the coups. Fiji Live reported on 28 March that Rabuka had told India's Ahmedabad Newsline, while visiting India for medical treatment, that he regretted his role in the coups, which he described as "democratically wrong." Following the adoption in 1990 of a new Constitution that guaranteed ethnic Fijian domination of the political system, Rabuka was chosen to lead the newly formed Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei in 1991. This party won the parliamentary election of 1992 and Rabuka became Prime Minister, his government was weakened from the outset, however, by a leadership challenge by former Finance Minister Josefata Kamikamica. In 1994, Kamikamica left the party with five of his supporters, depriving Rabuka of a parliamentary majority. A parliamentary election to resolve the impasse was held three years early. Rabuka formed a coalition with the small General Voters Party, a small party supported entirely by General electors, who comprised Europeans and other minorities.
He agreed to negotiate with moderate leaders of the Indo-Fijian community to draft a controversial new Constitution, which removed most of the provisions that had biased the political system in favour of indigenous Fijians. The elections of 1999 were the first in many years to see real competition between ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians for power. Rabuka lost these elections, was replaced by Mahendra Chaudhry, the first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister. Following his electoral defeat, Rabuka was elected Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs of the Great Council of Chiefs, he was forced to relinquish this post in 2001, however, in the wake of allegations made against him by former President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara of complicity in the Fiji coup of 2000, which deposed both Mara and the Indo-Fijian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, on 19 May 2000. Claiming that the coup leader George Speight –, in custody and has since been convicted of treason – was only a front, Mara appeared on Close-Up television program on 30 April 2001 and revealed that on 21 May 2000, two days afte
Australia national rugby union 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. Australia have competed in all eight Rugby World Cups, winning the final on two occasions and finishing as runner-up twice. In 1991 Australia beat England in the final at Twickenham and won again in 1999 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff when their opponents in the final were France; the Wallabies compete annually in The Rugby Championship, along with southern hemisphere counterparts Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa. They have won this championship on four occasions. Australia plays Test matches against the various rugby-playing nations. More than a dozen former Wallabies players have been inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame. Australia's first international match was played against the touring British Isles team in 1899; the first Test was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground and won 13–3 by Australia, but the tourists won the remaining three Tests.
The Australian team for the first match consisted of six players from Queensland and nine from New South Wales. The team wore the blue of New South Wales when playing in Sydney and the maroon of Queensland when playing in Brisbane, but with an Australian Coat of Arms in place of the usual emblems of each colony; the first Test between Australia and New Zealand was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1903, with New Zealand winning 22–3. This tour improved rugby's popularity in Sydney and Brisbane and helped to boost club match attendances. In 1907 the New South Wales Rugby League was formed and star player Dally Messenger left rugby union for the rival code; the next year the first Australian rugby team to tour the British Isles left Sydney. Newspapers in England gave the team the name'Rabbits'; the Australian players thought this nickname derogatory and replaced it with'Wallabies'. In 1909, when the new "Northern Union" code was still in its infancy in Australia, a match between the Kangaroos and the Wallabies was played before a crowd of around 20,000, with the Rugby League side winning 29–26.
The First World War had a negative effect on rugby union in Australia. All rugby union competitions in New South Wales and Queensland ceased after the state bodies decided it was inappropriate to play football when so many young men were fighting overseas; the sport of rugby union was all but closed down causing many players to switch to rugby league – which did not cease playing during the war. In Queensland regular competitions did not commence again until 1929, there was no official Australian team selected through most of the 1920s before the 1929 All Blacks tour; the New South Wales Waratahs were re-formed in 1920, played throughout the decade including series of matches against New Zealand and South Africa before their 1927–28 tour of the British Isles and Canada. Because these Waratahs teams were Australia's only representatives at the time, all international matches they played during this period were accorded retrospective Wallaby status. War hero Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop played for Australia before World War II.
He played on the side, the first to win the Bledisloe Cup. The first Test to following World War Two was played at Carisbrook, Dunedin between Australia and New Zealand in 1946, which New Zealand won 31–8. Australia did not win on the three match tour. Australia embarked on a tour of the home nations in 1947–48; the successful tour fell short of an undefeated run when the Australia lost to France in their last match, in Paris. Players on the rise included Cyril Burke and Nicholas Shehadie. After returning from the successful European tour, Australia hosted the New Zealand Maori in a three match series in 1949. In September of that year, Australia played the All Blacks twice in New Zealand, winning both games and taking back the Bledisloe Cup for the first time on New Zealand soil. The'Number 1' All Black side was touring South Africa at the time and the wins by Australia against the B-team have sometimes been downgraded. However, in deference to the apartheid system in operation in South Africa, the NZRU did not select any Maori players for the tour.
Many of those regular All Black Maori played against Australia instead and it could be said that the New Zealand team that played Australia was at least as good as the one on tour in South Africa. The British Isles toured Australia in 1950, won both of the Tests against Australia; the following year Australia fell to a three Test whitewash to the All Blacks. Australia won in July 1952, defeating Fiji at the Sydney Cricket Ground – they lost the second Test to Fiji by two points. Australia managed to beat the All Blacks at Lancaster Park after the Fijian series. On this tour they drew against Rhodesia in Kitwe 8–8; the first match of the new decade was the win over Fiji at the SCG in the first match of a three Test series during 1961. This was followed by a second win. Australia headed to South Africa, where they lost to the Springboks in Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg. After returning home, they faced France at the SCG, who beat them 15–8. In 1962, Australia lost all but a 9-all draw at Athletic Park.
After defeating England 18–9 in 1963 in Sydney, Australia beat the Springboks in consecutive Tests in South Africa. Fewer tests were played throughout the mid-1960s, with Australia only playing a three Test series against All Bla
France national rugby union team
The France national rugby union team competes annually against England, Italy and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright seventeen times, shared it a further eight times, have completed nine grand slams. Ten former French players have been inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame. France are ranked 8th in the World Rugby Rankings as of March 18th 2019. Rugby was introduced to France in 1872 by the British, on New Years Day 1906 the national side played its first Test match – against New Zealand in Paris. France played sporadically against the Home Nations until they joined them to form a Five Nations tournament in 1910. France competed in the rugby competitions at early Summer Olympics, winning the gold medal in 1900 and two silver medals in the 1920s; the national team came of age during the 1950s and 1960s, winning their first Five Nations title outright in 1959. They won their first Grand Slam in 1968. Since the inaugural World Cup in 1987, France have qualified for the knock-out stage of every tournament.
They have reached the final three times, losing to the All Blacks in 1987 and 2011 and to Australia in 1999. France hosted the 2007 Rugby World Cup, where, as in 2003, they were beaten in the semi-finals by England and will once again host the tournament in 2023. France traditionally play in blue shirts with white shorts and red socks, are referred to as les tricolores or les bleus; the French emblem is a golden rooster imposed upon a red shield. Their alternative strip is composed of navy blue shorts and socks. French international matches are played at several venues across the country. Rugby was introduced to France in 1872 by English students. On 26 February 1890, a French rugby team recruited from the Janson Desailly Lyceum defeated an international team at the Bois de Boulogne. Although France were represented at the 1900 Summer Olympics, their first official test match did not take place till New Year's Day, 1906 against the New Zealand All Blacks in Paris. France played intermittently against the Home Nations until they joined them to form the Five Nations tournament in 1910.
In 1913 France faced South Africa's Springboks for the first time. France competed at the 1920 and 1924 Summer Olympics, on both occasions lost to the United States in the gold medal match. France were ejected from the Five Nations in 1932 after being accused of professionalism in the French leagues at a time when rugby union was amateur. Forced to play against weaker opposition, France went on a winning streak. France was invited to rejoin the Five Nations in 1939 but did not compete until 1947 as international rugby was suspended during World War II. French rugby came of age during the 1950s and 1960s: they won their first Five Nations championship and completed a successful tour of South Africa, their first championship was won in 1954 when they shared the title with Wales. France won their first outright Five Nations championship in 1959. France first toured South Africa winning the test series in 1958; the Springboks visited Paris in 1961, the test was not completed due to onfield fighting amongst the players.
France toured New Zealand and Australia in 1961 losing both tests against the All Blacks but defeating Australia's Wallabies. They won their first Five Nations Grand Slam in 1968 by beating all four other competing teams, won numerous titles in the following years. In 1977, France won their second Grand Slam, fielding an unchanged side throughout the tournament and conceding no tries, they defeated the All Blacks in Toulouse that year, but lost the return match in Paris. On Bastille Day, 1979 they defeated the All Blacks in New Zealand for the first time, at Eden Park in Auckland. In 1981 the French clinched their third Grand Slam, they again completed a Grand Slam in 1987 on the eve of the first Rugby World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand. In that tournament they came from behind numerous times to defeat the Wallabies in their semi-final, faced the All Blacks in final at Eden Park, Auckland, they shared the Five Nations with Wales the next year, won it in 1989. France hosted some of the tests during the 1991 World Cup, but made their exit from the after being knocked out by England at the Parc des Princes in their quarter-final.
One Five Nations championship was won in the early 1990s, in 1993. The following year France won a test series 2–0 in New Zealand, they were knocked out of the 1995 World Cup semi-finals by eventual champions the Springboks, but did win their third place play-off match against England. France played the All blacks in two tests, winning the first 22–15 at Toulouse and lost the second 37–12 at Paris. France won back-to-back Grand Slams in 1997 and 1998. At the 1999 World Cup they defeated tournament favourites the All Blacks in the semi-finals, but lost to the Wallabies in the final; the Five Nations Championship was expanded in 2000 to include Italy. In the now Six Nations Championship France won a Grand Slam in 2002. At the 2003 World Cup in Australia they qualified for the semi-finals where they were defeated by eventual champions England. In 2004, they won a second Six Nations Grand Slam, followed by a Championship win in 2006 and a successful defence in 2007. Dur
Quddus Fielea (2008)
Moses Rauluni (2008)
Pacific Islanders
, 19.George Smith, 20.Chris Whitaker, 21.Matt Burke, 22.Chris Latham 
