Rugby Union
Rugby union is the national sport in New Zealand, and is popular across all sections of New Zealand society, and many New Zealanders associate it with their national identity. It has the largest spectator following of all sports in New Zealand. New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks, has the best winning record of any national team in the world, and is currently ranked first in the world. The All Blacks won the first Rugby World Cup in 1987, and again on home soil in 2011. The All Blacks traditionally perform a haka, a Māori challenge, at the start of international matches. This practice has been mimicked by several other national teams, notably the national rugby league team, and the basketball teams.
Outside Test matches, there are three widely followed competitions:
- Super Rugby (previously Super 6, Super 10, Super 12, and Super 14), the elite club competition in the southern hemisphere, involving teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.
- ITM Cup (previously Air New Zealand Cup), created in 2006 as a successor to the National Provincial Championship (NPC), involves professional provincial New Zealand teams and is played mainly during the winter months.
- Heartland Championship, an amateur competition of lower-level New Zealand provincial teams, also created in 2006 as a successor to the NPC.
Read more about this topic: Sport In New Zealand, Popular Sports
Famous quotes containing the word union:
“If the Union is once severed, the line of separation will grow wider and wider, and the controversies which are now debated and settled in the halls of legislation will then be tried in fields of battle and determined by the sword.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)