1945–46 Victory Internationals
The so-called Victory Internationals is a list of rugby union matches played in Europe from 1945 to 1946 between British, Irish, New Zealand and French rugby union representatives. During the Second World War, international matches were suspended, with the exception of some matches between Italy, Germany and Romania. Earlier, in June 1939, France was re-admitted to play in the 1940 international match against British teams, a full schedule was re-introduced in the Five Nations Championship in 1947. The international matches were not recognized as "official" ("capped matches") by British or Irish unions due to the absence of many players still serving in the armed forces in European and Pacific ocean Theater (warfare), theatres. France however did award full caps for each of these games. The New Zealand selection was called the "Kiwis", and was also known as the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force Rugby Team (a group of New Zealand soldiers), a name derived from New Zealand Ex ...
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Rugby Union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in England in the first half of the 19th century. Rugby is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is played between two teams of 15 players each, using an Rugby ball, oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field called a pitch. The field has H-shaped Goal (sports)#Structure, goalposts at both ends. Rugby union is a popular sport around the world, played by people regardless of gender, age or size. In 2023, there were more than 10 million people playing worldwide, of whom 8.4 million were registered players. World Rugby, previously called the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) and the International Rugby Board (IRB), has been the governing body for rugby union since 1886, a ...
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