List of international rugby union teams

The following is a list of international rugby union teams:

Multinational teams

Combination sides

• The British and Irish Lions, perhaps the most famous multi-national rugby team.
  •  England
  •  Ireland
  •  Scotland
  •  Wales

• Established in 1950, East Africa has conducted seven tours between 1954 and 1982 and has played against incoming international, representative and club touring sides including twice against the British Lions; perhaps the only example of representative (as opposed to invitational) multinational teams playing against each other. They have also played against the Barbarians.
  •  Kenya
  •  Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika)
  •  Uganda

• A similar development in 2004 has been of a Pacific Islanders XV.
  •  Fiji
  •  Samoa
  •  Tonga

• The South American Jaguars were a combination team who played South Africa during the early 1980s.
  •  Argentina
  •  Chile
  •  Uruguay

• The African Leopards are a development side drawn from across Africa, they have played representational rugby union against South African students.

• The Arabian Gulf rugby union team combined various teams from the Arabian peninsula and competed in World Cup qualification. The Arabian Gulf Rugby Union has now been dismantled and responsibility for the game devolved to each of the member nations, although the team may be revived in the future.

• There is also a West Indies side, which first toured when the Caribbean Rugby Union sent a team (managed by Gavin Clark) to tour England in 1976. Their last tour was also to England in October and November 2000.

• The Commonwealth of Independent States also played during the early 1990s.

• World XV sides have also been fielded nine times between 1977 and 2014.

Invitation sides

• The Barbarian Football Club is probably the most famous invitation side. It has spawned New Zealand Barbarians, South African Barbarians, and French Barbarians.
• Scorpions RFC are an East African equivalent (founded in 1959) existing and playing under a similar ethos to the Barbarians.

Other invitational sides past and present include:

• President's Overseas XV, selected for the hundredth anniversary of the RFU
• Overseas Unions rugby union team
• Rest of the World XV
• Four Home Unions XV
• Rest of Europe XV

• In the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami a Northern hemisphere side took on a Southern hemisphere side in the IRB Rugby Aid Match:
  • Northern Hemisphere XV
  • Southern Hemisphere XV

National teams – tier classification

The sport's international governing body, the International Rugby Board, organises its member unions into three tiers.^[1] All Tier 1 and 2 nations have competed in the Rugby World Cup (RWC).

Tier 1

Northern Hemisphere countries	Southern Hemisphere countries
England  France  Ireland  Italy  Scotland  Wales	Argentina  Australia  New Zealand  South Africa

• Northern Hemisphere countries participate in the Six Nations Championship. Southern Hemisphere countries participate in the The Rugby Championship.

Tier 2

Pacific countries	European countries
Samoa  Tonga  Fiji  Japan  United States  Canada	Georgia  Romania

• Pacific countries participate in the IRB Pacific Nations Cup. European countries participate in the European Nations Cup.

Tier 3

The remaining unions are all classified in "Tier 3". Tier 3 with RWC experience:

Tier 3 with no RWC experience:

National teams – band classification

Starting in 2008, in addition to the existing tier system, the IRB introduced a four-band system of classification in which unions and, by extension, teams are classified based on "their development status and record on the international stage". The new structure is:^[2]

High performance

All countries previously in Tiers 1 and 2.

Performance

These are countries earmarked for increased developmental funding and include

•  Namibia
•  Portugal
•  Russia
•  Spain
•  Uruguay

Targeted

Again, the IRB did not release a list of unions in this category, but named several as being in this band:

•  China
•  Germany
•  India
•  Mexico

Developmental

This is the location for all remaining unions.

Other teams

Several of these sides are French dependencies.

Defunct national sides

Various national sides have ceased to exist for political reasons. In the case of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, there is more than one successor team. In the case of Catalonia, the Spanish Civil War and Franco's crackdown put an end to it, and in the case of East and West Germany, reunification led to their amalgamation into a single German side.

• Arabian Gulf* – dissolved by the end of 2010 and replaced by separate unions and national teams
•  Catalonia
• CIS*
•  Czechoslovakia
•  East Africa* – a combination of Kenya, Tanzania/Tanganyika and Uganda. It has not played for about a decade but the Rugby Football Union of East Africa (RFUEA) still exists and there have been recent talks to resurrect the team
•  East Germany
•  Rhodesia
•  Soviet Union
•  Wallis and Futuna – has not played since 1971 and so moribund
•  West Germany
•  Yugoslavia

* For more information on these teams see above.

Women's rugby

Defunct women's national sides

•  Catalonia
•  Great Britain
•  Soviet Union

Notes and references

International rugby union teams   World Rugby High Performance Teams Argentina Australia Canada England Fiji France Georgia Ireland Italy Japan New Zealand Romania Samoa Scotland South Africa Tonga United States Wales   Non-high performance teams that have appeared at the Rugby World Cup Ivory Coast Namibia Portugal Russia Spain Uruguay Zimbabwe   Non-high performance teams with no Rugby World Cup appearances American Samoa Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Barbados Belgium Bermuda Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Cayman Islands Chile China Chinese Taipei Colombia Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Finland Germany Ghana Greece Guam Guyana Hong Kong Hungary India Indonesia Iran Israel Jamaica Kazakhstan Kenya Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Moldova Monaco Mongolia Morocco Netherlands Nigeria Niue Norway Pakistan Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Rwanda Senegal Serbia Singapore Slovenia Solomon Islands South Korea Sri Lanka St Lucia St Vincent and the Grenadines Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Tahiti Tanzania Thailand Togo Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Zambia The following teams are affiliated to World Rugby through their governing body, the French Rugby Federation Mayotte Réunion Guadeloupe Martinique New Caledonia Wallis and Futuna   Teams that are not affiliated to World Rugby Algeria Benin Burkina Faso Catalonia Central Africa Chad Congo Curaçao Democratic Republic of the Congo Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Egypt Estonia Gabon Gibraltar Guatemala Jordan Lebanon Libya Macau Montenegro Niger Panama San Marino Slovakia St. Kitts and Nevis Turkey Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Qatar   Combination teams African Leopards British and Irish Lions Pacific Islanders South American XV   Defunct teams Arabian Gulf Commonwealth of Independent States Czechoslovakia East Africa East Germany Nyasaland (Malawi) Soviet Union West Germany Yugoslavia