Grand Slam (rugby Union) - Grand Slam Tours

Grand Slam Tours

A Grand Slam tour is one in which a touring national team from New Zealand, South Africa or Australia plays Test matches against all four home nations (England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland). If the tourists win all four of these games, they are said to have achieved a Grand Slam.

Grand Slams by touring teams have been achieved nine times: four times each by South Africa and New Zealand, and once by Australia. The only touring country to have achieved a "Five Nations" Grand Slam (defeating France in addition to the four home countries on the same tour) is South Africa, in its tours of 1912–13 and 1951–52.

Australia is the only country to suffer an unofficial "grand slam of defeats" against the four home nations, on their 1957–58 tour.

After 1984, Southern Hemisphere sides started to tour the British Isles more frequently, but to play fewer Tests on each tour, and thus there were no Grand Slam tours between 1984 and 1998. However, since 1998 Grand Slam tours have become quite common again, as the number of Tests on each tour has again increased, although fewer matches are now played against club or provincial teams than was formerly the case on Grand Slam tours. For example, New Zealand played only Test matches in 2005 and 2010 and played only one non-Test in 2008 (a midweek match against Munster to commemorate Munster's defeat of the All Blacks in 1978, which had been their only loss on that tour). The All Blacks' tours of 2005 and 2008 were originally planned to include only three Test matches; the late inclusion of matches against Wales and England respectively turned these into Grand Slam tours.