The Highveld XV, also known for sponsorship reasons as the

Royal Bafokeng Nation The Royal Bafokeng is the ethnic homeland of the Bafokeng people, a Setswana-speaking traditional community. The monarchy covers in the North West Province of South Africa. The capital is Phokeng, near Rustenburg. "Bafokeng" is used to refer ...

Highveld XV or simply the Royal XV, are a composite provincial

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 orig ...

team from South Africa. Like their Coastal XV counterparts, the Highveld XV were created by the

South African Rugby Union The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board ...

to provide an opponent for the

British & Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

as part of their 2009 tour to South Africa. It is not known if the team will be re-activated for future tours or if this was just a one-off operation. The Coastal XV however was rebranded as the

Southern Kings The Southern Kings were a South African professional rugby union team that competed in Super Rugby and Pro14. They were based in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province and played their home matches at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. They w ...

, which played in

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

in 2013. Traditionally the Lions only play against the best

Currie Cup The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, four South African franc ...

teams when touring South Africa but the South African Rugby Union felt the best players from all teams should have an opportunity to play against the touring side. As a result, two composite teams regrouping players from weaker unions were created, the Highveld XV being one of them. The team represents most of the

Highveld The Highveld (Afrikaans: ''Hoëveld,'' , ) is the portion of the South African inland plateau which has an altitude above roughly , but below , thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions to the south-east of the Highveld. It is home to some of t ...

region in the country's north-west. It draws players from the

Griquas The Griquas are a subgroup of mixed-race heterogeneous formerly-Xiri-speaking nations in South Africa with a unique origin in the early history of the Dutch Cape Colony. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Comm ...

from the

Northern Cape Province The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kga ...

, the

Leopards The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...

from the

North West Province North West ( ; ) is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Mahikeng. The province is located to the west of the major population centre and province of Gauteng and south of Botswana. History North West was incorporated after the end of ...

, the Pumas from

Mpumalanga Province Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

, the Griffons from part of the

Free State Province The Free State ( ; ; ; ; ), formerly known as the Orange Free State, is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bloemfontein, which is also South Africa's judicial capital. Its historical origins lie in the Boer republic called the Orang ...

and the Falcons (Valke) from part of

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

.Royal XV selected to face Lions, SA Rugby 12 May 2009
/ref> The Highveld XV played their first game against the touring Lions on 30 May 2009 at the

Royal Bafokeng Stadium The Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace is a football, rugby and athletics stadium in Phokeng near Rustenburg, South Africa. It was built and is managed by the Royal Bafokeng Nation. It was used as the home stadium for Premier Soccer League club P ...

Rustenburg Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch language, Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a town at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West (South African province), North West province, South Africa (549 ...

and lost 25 to 37.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Highveld Xv Rugby union teams in South Africa

See also

References