Grand Slam tours

A Grand Slam tour is a tour by a Southern Hemisphere rugby union national team in which the team plays and beats all four "home" nations - England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

This feat has been achieved four times by South Africa and New Zealand and once by Australia, who are the only Southern Hemisphere team to suffer a Grand Slam of defeats against the Home Nations, in 1957–58.

South Africa is the only team to have achieved the Grand Slam against the Five Nations: in the tours of 1912–13 and 1951–52. They also played, and defeated, France.

 South Africa 1912–13, 1931–32, 1951–52, 1960–61
 New Zealand 1978, 2005, 2008, 2010
 Australia 1984

Because of the congested schedule in international rugby, Grand Slam tours may become less common. The last was in 2010, when New Zealand achieved their fourth Grand Slam. The original programme for the 2008 tour envisaged only three Test matches - the late inclusion of a Test against England made the Grand Slam possible for New Zealand. In addition, New Zealand played only one midweek match against Munster, and the match was only included in the tour programme as a 30th anniversary commemoration of Munster's defeat of the All Blacks in 1978 (ironically the match was the All Blacks' only loss in that Grand Slam tour). Traditional Grand Slam tours (before rugby went professional in 1995) were usually much longer with weekend tour games against national test teams as well as midweek matches against provincial sides .

Contents

[hide]

List Grand Slam Tours

New Zealand

Year Achieved
1905–06
1935–36
1953–54
1963–64
1972–73
1978 Y
2005 Y
2008 Y
2010 Y

South Africa

Year Achieved
1906–07
1912–13 Y
1931–32 Y
1951–52 Y
1960–61 Y
1969–70
1998
2004
2010

Australia

Year Achieved
1927–28
1947–48
1957–58
1966–67
1975–76
1981–82
1984 Y
2009

Near Grand Slam tours

Team Who they missed out playing Year
 New Zealand Scotland 1924-1925
 New Zealand Ireland 1967
 Argentina Wales 1990
 Australia England 1996
 Italy Wales 1996-1997
 New Zealand Scotland 1997
 South Africa Scotland 2000
 Fiji England 2002
 Australia Scotland 2005
Pacific Islanders England 2006
 Australia England 2006
 South Africa Ireland 2008
 Canada England 2008
 Argentina Ireland 2009

External links