[1][2] Some teams do not represent a single country but their international games are still considered test matches (for example the British and Irish Lions).
The first recorded use of the word in relation to sport occurs in 1861[3] when it was used, especially by journalists, to designate the most important (but at that stage non-international) games played as part of a cricket tour by an unofficial English team to Australia and it is thought to arise[4] from the idea that the matches were a "test of strength and competency" between the sides involved.
[5] In rugby union, test match status and caps may be awarded by either team's governing body regardless of the decision of their opponents.
The only existing example remaining in men's rugby involving two top-tier nations concerns games played by the New South Wales Waratahs against the New Zealand All Blacks in the 1920s.
The first women's "test" took place in 1982 between the Netherlands and France, but the sport was not widely accepted or recognised by many existing national Unions or the International Rugby Board for many years, nor had it attracted significant media interest.