List of international rugby union teams

The following is a list of international rugby union teams:

Multinational teams

Combination sides

• The British and Irish Lions, perhaps the most famous multi-national rugby team.
  •  England
  •  Ireland
  •  Scotland
  •  Wales
• Established in 1950, East Africa has conducted seven tours between 1954 and 1982 and has played against incoming international, representative and club touring sides including twice against the British Lions; perhaps the only example of representative (as opposed to invitational) multinational teams playing against each other. They have also played against the Barbarians.
  •  Kenya
  •  Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika)
  •  Uganda
• A similar development in 2004 has been of a Pacific Islanders XV.
  •  Fiji
  •  Samoa
  •  Tonga
• The South American Jaguars were a combination team who played South Africa during the early 1980s.
  •  Argentina
  •  Chile
  •  Uruguay
• The African Leopards are a development side drawn from across Africa, they have played representational rugby union against South African students.
• The Arabian Gulf rugby union team combined various teams from Arab countries in the Persian Gulf and competed in World Cup qualification. The Arabian Gulf Rugby Union has now been dismantled and responsibility for the game devolved to each of the member nations, although the team may be revived in the future.

• There is also a West Indies side, which first toured when the Caribbean Rugby Union sent a team (managed by Gavin Clark) to tour England in 1976. Their last tour was also to England in October and November 2000.
• The Commonwealth of Independent States also played during the early 1990s.

• World XV sides have also been fielded nine times between 1977 and 2014.

Invitation sides

• The Barbarian Football Club is probably the most famous invitation side. It has spawned New Zealand Barbarians, South African Barbarians, and French Barbarians.
• Scorpions RFC are an East African equivalent (founded in 1959) existing and playing under a similar ethos to the Barbarians.

Other invitational sides past and present include:

• President's Overseas XV, selected for the hundredth anniversary of the RFU
• Overseas Unions rugby union team
• Rest of the World XV
• Four Home Unions XV
• Rest of Europe XV
• In the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami a Northern hemisphere side took on a Southern hemisphere side in the IRB Rugby Aid Match:
  • Northern Hemisphere XV
  • Southern Hemisphere XV

National teams – tier classification

The sport's international governing body, World Rugby (formerly the International Rugby Board), organises its member unions into three tiers.^[1] All Tier 1 and 2 nations have competed in the Rugby World Cup (RWC).

Tier 1

Nation	Rank Range (Best–Worst)	Competition
New Zealand	1–3	Rugby Championship
South Africa	1–6	Rugby Championship
England	1–8	Six Nations
Australia	2–6	Rugby Championship
France	2–9	Six Nations
Ireland	2–9	Six Nations
Wales	2–10	Six Nations
Argentina	3–12	Rugby Championship
Scotland	6–12	Six Nations
Italy	8–15	Six Nations

Tier 2

• Pacific countries participate in the IRB Pacific Nations Cup. European countries participate in the European Nations Cup.

Development (Tier 3)

Development One :

Development Two:

National teams – band classification

Starting in 2008, in addition to the existing tier system, the IRB introduced a four-band system of classification in which unions and, by extension, teams are classified based on "their development status and record on the international stage". The new structure is:^[2]

High performance

All countries previously in Tiers 1 and 2.

Development One

These are countries earmarked for increased developmental funding and include

•  Portugal
•  Spain
•  Chile
•  Hong Kong

Targeted

Again, the IRB did not release a list of unions in this category, but named several as being in this band:

•  China
•  Germany
•  India
•  Mexico

Developmental

This is the location for all remaining unions.

Other teams

Defunct national sides

Various national sides have ceased to exist for political reasons. In the case of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, there is more than one successor team. In the case of Catalonia, the Spanish Civil War and Franco's crackdown put an end to it, and in the case of East and West Germany, reunification led to their amalgamation into a single German side.

• Arabian Gulf* – dissolved by the end of 2010 and replaced by separate unions and national teams
•  Catalonia
• CIS*
•  Czechoslovakia
•  East Africa* – a combination of Kenya, Tanzania/Tanganyika and Uganda. It has not played since 1982 but the Rugby Football Union of East Africa (RFUEA) still exists and there have been recent talks to resurrect the team
•  East Germany
•  Rhodesia - superseded by the Zimbabwe rugby team since 1980, the year of the country's sovereignty.
•  Soviet Union
•  Wallis and Futuna – has not played since 1971 and so moribund
•  West Germany
•  Yugoslavia

* For more information on these teams see above.

Women's rugby

Defunct women's national sides

•  Catalonia
•  Great Britain
•  Soviet Union

Invitation sides

• Nomads

Notes and references