Following the last Tri Nations tournament in 2011, New Zealand had won ten championships, with South Africa and Australia on three titles each.

The opening tournament of 1996 was dominated by the All Blacks who stormed to victory undefeated, leaving the Springboks and the Wallabies with just one win each — against each other.

[7] Australia continued their reign as Tri Nations champions by successfully defending the trophy the following year.

The Tri Nations championship and the Bledisloe Cup came down to the final match, between New Zealand and Australia at Eden Park.

There was some controversy as South Africa fielded less than a full strength squad in the away legs in Australia and New Zealand in anticipation of the World Cup[citation needed].

In 2009, South Africa claimed the season crown in their final match with an away win over New Zealand in Hamilton.

On 5 December 2020, a traditional version of the Australian National Anthem was sung for the first time in the Eora indigenous language, before the match between Argentina and Australia.

[8] The competition was expanded in 2006 and saw each of the three nations play each other three times, although the 2007 series reverted to a double round-robin to reduce fixture congestion in a World Cup year.

The Sunday Times noted that there were two main stumbling blocks to adding Argentina: However, by August 2007, it became clear that there would be no expansion of the series before the current television contract between SANZAR and News Corporation expires in 2010.

An IRB spokesman stated that the main problems with adding the Pumas to the Tri Nations, besides media contracts, were fixture congestion and the lack of a professional structure in Argentina.

[16] Because of this, a large majority of the Pumas play for European club teams, which would likely create further scheduling conflicts.

Admission of Argentina[17] was therefore submitted to several conditions for the UAR: In November 2007, the IRB held a conference on the future worldwide growth of the sport, with the status of Los Pumas a key topic of discussion.

"[20] At the time of the IRB conference, the UAR had already scheduled a special meeting for 28 December 2007 to amend its constitution to allow players to be paid.

[15] Shortly after the IRB conference, New Zealand Rugby Union deputy chief executive Steve Tew expressed doubts that, within ten years, a professional domestic competition in Argentina would be sufficiently viable to retain elite players in South America despite all the good intentions and funding of the IRB.

The 23 provincial delegates voted unanimously to keep their domestic league amateur, but approved a plan to centrally contract the Pumas selection pool to the UAR as professionals.

[16] In February 2009, the UAR announced that under a plan supervised and financed by the IRB, it had contracted 31 local players, who will each receive 2,300 Argentine pesos (US$655/£452) per month.

[24][25][26] They previously played in the Asia Rugby Championship which they dominated in for many years, facing lower competition.

Fiji have also been mentioned as another potential candidate to join the competition, as they tend to be the better performing tier 2 country.

[27][28] Along with Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, other smaller potentials to join, compete in the annual World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup.

On 5 October 2023, Flying Fijians head coach Simon Raiwalui confirmed that there were ongoing discussions of Fiji being part of the competition after the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

After a one-week break the series returned to New Zealand and then finished with South Africa's three home fixtures.

^2 The 2020 Tournament, held entirely in Australia, was played with maximum 50% stadium capacity allowance due to the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Updated: 28 September 2024 Source: espnscrum.com Updated: 28 September 2024 Source: espnscrum.com The U20 Rugby Championship is the youth edition of the competition The Rugby Championship, played between the teams that make up SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina) In July 2023 it was announced that the first edition of the youth competition of The Rugby Championship would be played, starting in April 2024, hosted on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

[citation needed] In 2020,[1] with the tournament being hosted in Australia following COVID-19 pandemic issues, South Africa had withdrawn.