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MELBOURNE, May 22 AAP – The Melbourne Rebels have a growing sense of self belief that they can pull off their first Super Rugby win outside Australia.
LONDON, May 22 PA – Western Force utility back Cameron Shepherd has quit the Super Rugby club to join English Premiership team Northampton on a three-year deal.
Rugby union is a competitive outdoor contact sport, played with a prolate spheroid ball, by two teams of 15 players. It is one of the two codes of rugby football, the other being rugby league. There is also a seven-a-side variant named rugby sevens which is played under modified laws. Rugby union is often referred to as simply rugby in areas where it is popular.
Rugby union has established itself as a popular sport for both spectators and participants, particularly in Australia, Argentina, England, Fiji, France, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Madagascar, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Niue, Namibia, Romania, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, Tonga and Wales.
Other places with lasting traditions in rugby, albeit as a minority sport in most cases, include the United States, Canada, Bermuda, Barbados, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, Papua New Guinea, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Moldova, Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Morocco, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. For example, the United States are the most recent Olympic gold medalists, winning the event at the Paris Olympics in 1924, which was the last year rugby was played at the games. There are now moves to have rugby reinstated as an Olympic sport, in the sevens format.
The International Rugby Board (IRB), founded in 1886, governs the sport worldwide and also publishes the game’s laws and rankings. There are currently 95 full members and eight associate member countries. According to IRB figures, rugby union is played in over 100 countries spanning six continents by men and women of all ages. The IRB controls the Rugby World Cup, the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Rugby World Cup Sevens, IRB Sevens World Series, Junior World Championship, Junior World Trophy, Nations Cup and the Pacific Nations Cup. It holds votes to decide where all of these events shall be held, except in the case of the Sevens World Series. For that competition, the IRB contracts with several national unions to hold individual events.
The most important tournament in rugby union is the Rugby World Cup, a men’s tournament that takes place every four years among the elite national rugby union teams. South Africa is the current world champion, winning the 2007 tournament held in France. They beat England who, having won it in 2003, were attempting to become the first country to retain the title. England were the first team from the Northern Hemisphere to win, the previous champions being New Zealand (1987), Australia (1991 and 1999), South Africa (1995). The fact that four different countries have won the World Cup confirms the level of competition in the tournament, creating intense interest from supporters, the media and major sponsors. Major international competitions in the northern and southern hemisphere are the Six Nations Championship and the Tri Nations Series, respectively.
The Six Nations is an annual competition involving the European northern hemisphere teams England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. Each country plays the other five once.
The Tri Nations is an annual international rugby union series held between the southern hemisphere teams of Australia Wallabies, New Zealand All Blacks and South Africa Springboks.
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