Codie Taylor

Codie Joshua Dane Taylor (born 31 March 1991) is a New Zealand rugby union footballer who plays as a hooker for Canterbury in the ITM Cup. Having grown up in Feilding and Levin before moving to Christchurch he was a member of the Crusaders Wider Training Squad for the 2012 Super Rugby season and he has subsequently been promoted to the senior squad for the 2013 season.

Taylor was part of the Junior All Blacks team which won the 2011 IRB Junior World Championship.

Of Ngāti Raukawa and Muaūpoko descent, Taylor played for the Māori All Blacks in 2014.

Taylor was selected for the All Blacks 2015 Squad against Samoa. His first game for the All Blacks was the opening match of the 2015 Rugby Championship against Argentina, when he came on in the 59th minute to replace Kevin Mealamu as Hooker. He scored a try on debut, in the 71st minute, after the All Blacks won a scrum close to the Argentine line.

Taylor was named in the All Blacks 31-man squad to go to the Rugby World Cup 2015 in England.

New Zealand national rugby union team

The New Zealand national men's rugby union team, officially nicknamed the All Blacks, represents New Zealand in men's rugby union, which is regarded as the country's national sport. The All Blacks are three time winners, and current holders of the Rugby World Cup, having won the inaugural competition in 1987, then won consecutive titles in 2011 and 2015, and are the 2015 World Rugby Team of the Year. They have won over 76% of their test matches and are the leading test match points scorers of all time. Their win ratio puts them amongst the most successful teams of any sport in history. They are the only international side with a winning record against every country they have played, and since their international debut in 1903 only five nations have defeated New Zealand in test matches. Since the introduction of the World Rugby Rankings in October 2003, New Zealand has held the number one ranking longer than all other teams combined. The All Blacks are also the first team to set their hands on the Webb Ellis Cup, the first team to win back to back Rugby World Cups, and the first team to win the cup on three separate occasions.

World Cup

World Cup commonly refers to:

World Cup can also refer to:

Athletics

Badminton

Bandy

Baseball and softball

Basketball

Chess

Cricket

Equestrian

Football

American football

Association football

Rugby World

Rugby World is a monthly rugby union magazine running since October 1960. It is published monthly by IPC Media and edited by Owain Jones who took over from long standing editor Paul Morgan in January 2012. Paul Morgan was long considered a leader in the industry, the magazine is the world's top-selling rugby magazine and has benefited from a worldwide rise in interest in rugby following the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup.

The magazine was initially published on "the third Wednesday of every month" by Longacre Press Limited (also known as Odhams Press which, in 1961, merged with Fleetway Publications and again in 1963 Fleetway merged with a number of other publishers to form IPC Media, though Odhams remained a distinct sub-company until 1968). The magazine was available through INI Sales and Distribution, 161-166 Fleet Street, London E.C.4. The original cost of the magazine was 2 Shillings (equivalent to £2.06 today). By the end of 1962 it was retailing at 2 Shillings 6 pence (written "2/6d", £2.57 today) and currently retails for £4.30 per issue, though various other deals are available by buying subscriptions and / or the electronic version of the magazine.

Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament was first held in 1987, when the tournament was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand are the current champions, having defeated Australia in the final of the 2015 tournament in England.

The winners are awarded the William Webb Ellis Cup, named after William Webb Ellis, the Rugby School pupil who — according to a popular legend — invented rugby by picking up the ball during a football game. Four countries have won the trophy; New Zealand have won it three times, two teams have won twice, Australia and South Africa, while England have won it once.

The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. Sixteen teams were invited to participate in the inaugural tournament in 1987, however since 1999 twenty teams have taken part. Japan will host the next event in 2019.

Format

Qualification

Qualifying tournaments were introduced for the second tournament, where eight of the sixteen places were contested in a twenty-four-nation tournament. The inaugural World Cup in 1987, did not involve any qualifying process; instead, the 16 places were automatically filled by seven eligible International Rugby Football Board (IRFB, now World Rugby) member nations, and the rest by invitation.