End-of-year rugby union internationals

The End of year rugby union tests, known as Autumn internationals in the Northern Hemisphere, are a series of rugby union test matches that are contested approximately each November. Teams from Europe's Six Nations Championship play against teams of the Southern Hemisphere's The Rugby Championship; second-tier teams, such as those from North American and Pacific countries, also participate. Each side typically plays three or four Test matches, and may choose to play games against provincial or "A" teams. Also, one of the Rugby Championship teams generally plays the invitational Barbarians club in the traditional "Final Challenge", usually at Twickenham in London, although Australia's Final Challenge in 2008 was at Wembley Stadium. Sky Sports have the television rights for England, France, Ireland and Italy matches. BBC Sport have the rights for Wales and Scotland matches.

Teams taking part

Home teams

• Barbarians
• England
• Wales
• Scotland
• Ireland (Ireland's matches are called the Guinness Autumn Series for sponsorship reasons.)
• France
• Italy
• Romania
• Georgia
• Russia
• Ukraine

Away teams

• New Zealand Māori (officially Māori All Blacks)
• New Zealand
• Australia
• South Africa
• Argentina
• Samoa
• Tonga
• Fiji
• Japan
• Canada
• USA

The Grand Slam

A touring nation may also have the opportunity to complete a Grand Slam by beating the four home unions of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This has been achieved nine times:

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

References