New Zealand Rugby

Rugby union is so popular in New Zealand that it’s the country’s unofficial national sport. In fact, New Zealand is home to over 500 clubs, 140,000 registered players and 2,300 referees.

Rugby union has been played in New Zealand since the 1870s, but various early versions of the sport were also played by the country’s Māori population prior to the arrival of European settlers who spread the love of the game throughout the country. By 1889, the New Zealand national rugby union team had already shown that it could compete with other established rugby-playing nations. A few years later, in the early 1900s, the team almost completed a clean sweep of victories on their tour of Britain.

Fast forward to the present day and New Zealand rugby teams are recognised as the world standard. The men’s New Zealand national rugby union team is known as the All Blacks and they’re the most successful team in the history of international rugby. They’re the only team to have never lost a World Cup pool game, they’ve won the World Cup three times and they have a positive winning record against every international side they’ve ever faced. In addition, the New Zealand rugby team has dominated the Rugby Championship (previously the Tri Nations). They’ve won the tournament 17 times since 1996.