Two years later, a New Zealand team visited New South Wales, wearing blue jerseys with a golden fern.

In 1902, the governor of New Zealand, the fifth Earl of Ranfurly presented a trophy shield to the Auckland side, who were undefeated in provincial competition that year.

Three years later, a 1905 New Zealand team, who became known as the "Originals", toured the British Isles and France winning all of their games apart from controversially losing the test against Wales.

One player, Aucklander George Smith met with Sydney entrepreneur James J. Giltinan on his way home, and discussed the opportunities of such a game.

The remaining provinces contested a split second division, though South and North teams did not meet each other, instead played their respective Island clubs.

Police were divided into Red and Blue riot squads for the tour, and in preparation for possible trouble, all spectators were told to assemble in sports grounds at least an hour before kickoff.

Police, already very worried, pulled the match when they found out a light plane piloted by a protester was headed to fly around the stadium.

During the final test match at Eden Park, a low flying plane dropped flour bombs over the pitch.

The 1996 Super 12 season saw the Auckland Blues finish in second place, whilst the Waikato Chiefs 6th, the Otago Highlanders 8th, the Wellington Hurricanes 9th, and the Canterbury Crusaders 12th.

[20] There are thousands of variations of haka that are performed by various tribes and cultural groups throughout New Zealand; one of the best known is called Ka Mate.

Jack Taiaroa and Joseph Warbrick were key members of the first representative New Zealand team, which toured New South Wales in 1884.

They competed in the Pacific Nations Cup competition alongside Australia A, Fiji, Japan, Samoa and Tonga.

The Junior All Blacks repeated their 2006 success in 2007 winning the competition with victories in all five of their matches including with a 50−0 thumping of their Australian counterparts at Carisbrook Dunedin.

[30] They then travelled to Salt Lake City to take on a USA Select XV in one of the first events held in the new Rio Tinto Stadium, and came from behind to notch a 19–14 win.

They are the current Women's Rugby World Cup champions, being 3 time winners after they won the 1998 tournament then again in 2002 in Barcelona and again in 2006 in Canada.

They were strong contenders during their time, and won the IRB Under 19 World Championship in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2007 The New Zealand Schoolboys rugby union team is for secondary school students to help them aim for and achieve higher honors.

Famous past schoolboy players include Aaron Mauger, Mils Muliaina, and Joe Rokocoko.

The team has played in many international fixtures including famous wins over the British and Irish Lions in their 1977 tour and the Springboks in 1956.

Many former NZU players have gone on to play for the All Blacks including David Kirk, Kieran Read and Conrad Smith.

Today the team takes part in a biannual tour to Japan and consists mainly of amateur club players.

While not domestic, Super Rugby is an international competition featuring teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

The league phase, originally a single round-robin, was replaced by a three-conference format, with each conference consisting of teams in one of the participating countries.

The competition was further reorganised in 2016 with a permanent sixth team from South Africa and new entries based in Argentina (Jaguares) and Japan (Sunwolves).

At that time, the competition was split into Australasian and African groups (with the latter including the Argentine and Japanese teams), each in turn being divided into two conferences.

New Zealand teams have dominated Super Rugby for much of its history, winning 12 of the 18 titles decided to date.

New Zealand lost to Australia in the semi-final in 2003 and fell to the French team in the quarter-final of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

They went on to be the first country in history to win the Rugby World Cup two times consecutively, as they won the 2015 competition in England.

The All Blacks won the first three editions of the renamed competition (2012–2014), giving them a total of 13 Tri Nations and Rugby Championship titles.

The Freedom Cup is contested between New Zealand and South Africa, first as part of the Tri Nations and now in The Rugby Championship.

In total, the All Blacks have won 67 Bledisloe Cup games, Australia 30, with four draws[needs update] as of mid 2006[ref].