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The South Africa national rugby union team is the current world champion team and one of only two sides, with New Zealand, to have won the Webb Ellis Trophy three times.
These two countries vied for the position as the world’s unofficial top team in the world until 1992 with the Kiwis thereafter overtaking the South Africa rugby team as the only side with more wins than losses against all opponents.
South Africa’s rugby history dates back to before the two British Colonies (Natal and the Cape) and the two Boer Republics (the Orange Free State and Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek) started fielding ‘provincial’ teams against one another.
The first reported match was between teams of Officers and Civil Servants in 1862.
The first club (Hamiltons) was founded in March 1875 and despite the four government entities with a divergence of political views and aspirations, a single combined rugby union, the South African Rugby Football Board, was formed in 1889.
They played as a united South Africa rugby entity as a SA Representative side, against the (mainly English) touring team in three matches which were later ratified as tests against what is today the British and Irish Lions. South Africa has 14 rugby unions, and its premier competition is for the Currie Cup, first played for in 1892.
South African teams also compete in the international Super Rugby and Pro14 competitions.
These two countries vied for the position as the world’s unofficial top team in the world until 1992 with the Kiwis thereafter overtaking the South Africa rugby team as the only side with more wins than losses against all opponents.
South Africa’s rugby history dates back to before the two British Colonies (Natal and the Cape) and the two Boer Republics (the Orange Free State and Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek) started fielding ‘provincial’ teams against one another.
The first reported match was between teams of Officers and Civil Servants in 1862.
The first club (Hamiltons) was founded in March 1875 and despite the four government entities with a divergence of political views and aspirations, a single combined rugby union, the South African Rugby Football Board, was formed in 1889.
They played as a united South Africa rugby entity as a SA Representative side, against the (mainly English) touring team in three matches which were later ratified as tests against what is today the British and Irish Lions. South Africa has 14 rugby unions, and its premier competition is for the Currie Cup, first played for in 1892.
South African teams also compete in the international Super Rugby and Pro14 competitions.
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