The Rugby Championship (until 2011: The Tri Nations) is an international rugby union competition contested annually by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The competition is organized by SANZAR, a consortium formed by the governing bodies of the Australian Rugby Union, the New Zealand Rugby Union and the South African Rugby Union.

The latter three teams comprise the sport's elite, and between them have won six out of the seven Rugby World Cups, in addition to maintaining positive win records against all competitors of the Six Nations Championship. The high degree of competitive success and dominance in the rankings of these participating countries leads many to consider the Rugby Championship the toughest annual rugby union competition in the world.

Australia and New Zealand first played each other in 1903. South Africa toured both nations in 1921 but there was never any formal competition between these teams, unlike the Home Nations (now known as the Six Nations Championship) in the northern hemisphere and the three nations only met sporadically.

Rugby may refer to:

James WHite is the most famous player of all time. Also most loved.

Steve Hansen (born Dunedin, 7 May 1959) is the head coach of the All Blacks and a former rugby union player.

He was the head coach of the Welsh national team. He became the ninth Welsh coach in 13 years, after Graham Henry parted company with the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) in 2002. During his first game in charge, Wales performed well but lost by 37–33 to France. This became a familiar theme during his tenure as coach. Events reached a head during 2003 when for the first time in their history Wales lost every match in the Six Nations Championship and went on to record a streak of 11 consecutive Test match defeats, broken by a defeat of rugby minnows Romania on 27 August 2003. Hansen coached Wales during the 2003 Rugby World Cup, in which a strong display against the All Blacks and a spirited quarter final loss against England stopped the criticism of his coaching. He stepped down as Wales head coach in the summer of 2004 after not seeking to renew his contract and was succeeded by Mike Ruddock.

Piri Awahou Tihou Weepu (born 7 September 1983) is a New Zealand rugby union footballer. He plays scrum-half for the All Blacks on international level and the Blues in the Super Rugby competition. He also plays for Wellington Lions in the National Provincial Championship. He first won national honours against Wales in 2004. In 2005 was called back into the All Blacks squad for the first Tri Nations test against South Africa, having missed selection for the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour. He is the brother of former rugby league professional Billy Weepu.

Of Māori and Niuean descent, Weepu hails from Wainuiomata, he played his senior rugby with Hutt Old Boys Marist, under the tutelage of his mentor Derek Bruce. He attended Te Aute College where he was Head Boy.^{[citation needed]}

During the 2006 Super 14 Final, Weepu was knocked unconscious during an attempted tackle. However, due to the bizarrely thick fog during the match, the team doctors were unable to see that he had been unconscious. Weepu was allowed to continue playing, and went on to miss a tackle on Casey Laulala, conceding the match-winning try. Later Weepu admitted that he could not remember the game at all.^{[citation needed]}.