Tri Nations championship history
The Tri Nations is an international rugby union competition that is played annually by Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The competition is organized by SANZAR, a consortium formed by the three countries' rugby governing bodies – the Australian Rugby Union, the New Zealand Rugby Union and the South African Rugby Union.
The Tri Nations will become the Four Nations in 2012 should the inclusion of Argentina as the fourth team go ahead.
The series is played on a home-and-away basis. From the first tournament in 1996 through 2005, the three teams played each other twice. Since then, each team has played the others three times, except in the Rugby World Cup year of 2007 when the series reverted to a double round-robin.
History
Foundation
Australia and New Zealand first played each other in 1903. South Africa toured both nations in 1921 but there was never any formal competition in place, For years the southern nations longed for a competition like the Home Nations. The three nations met sporadically with Australia and New Zealand meeting regularly to contest the Bledisloe Cup.
The final acceptance of professionalism in rugby union launched the Tri Nations concept. Nearing the completion of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, multi-million pound negotiations between the South African, New Zealand and Australian unions took place to form SANZAR. The new union soon announced a ten-year deal worth £360 million. The competition was established to create an equivalent to the Five Nations in Europe.
Tournaments
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. The opening exchange was between New Zealand and Australia, New Zealand winning by over 40 points and, although they won all four of their games, the later matches were a lot closer in their scorelines.
The All Blacks maintained their dominance over the new competition and again went undefeated. Australia and South Africa found themselves in similar position again with just one win each. The 1998 series was something of a turnaround for all nations with South Africa winning the tournament and Australia finishing second. Two-time winner New Zealand finished at the bottom with no wins. In the following tournament in 1999 New Zealand again became Tri Nations champions and defending champions South Africa fell to the bottom.
Competition
After some tweaking of the schedule it was decided to start the series with two fixtures in either South Africa or New Zealand and move the series to the country that did not host the opening rounds. Under this setup Australia's home fixtures were always the middle two in the series.
This was the result of a new television deal between SANZAR and broadcasters in the United Kingdom and the SANZAR countries. Each team plays the other three times. In 2006 the series opened in New Zealand and the first four rounds alternated between New Zealand and Australia. The fifth round was in Australia. After a one-week break the series returned to New Zealand and then finished with South Africa's three home fixtures.
The winner is determined by a points system:
# 4 points for a win
# 2 points for a draw
# 0 points for a loss
"Bonus points" may also be earned in any given match and count toward deciding the series winner. A total of two bonus points can be possibly scored.
# The Attacking bonus point by scoring four or more tries in the match, regardless of the final result.
# The Defending bonus point by losing by seven points (a converted try) or less.2009 Tri Nations champions video.
Tri Nations Fixtures 2010
| July | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, July 10 | Venue | Time | |||
| New Zealand vs South Africa | Eden Park, Auckland | 5:35pm | |||
| Saturday, July 17 | Venue | Time | |||
| New Zealand vs South Africa | Westpac Stadium, Wellington | 5:35pm | |||
| Saturday, July 24 | Venue | Time | |||
| Australia vs South Africa | Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane | 8:00pm | |||
| Saturday, July 31 | Venue | Time | |||
| Australia vs New Zealand | Etihad Stadium, Melbourne | 8:00pm | |||
| August | |||||
| Saturday, August 7 | Venue | Time | |||
| New Zealand vs Australia | AMI Stadium, Christchurch | 5:35pm | |||
| Sunday, August 22 | Venue | Time | |||
| South Africa vs New Zealand | Coca-Cola Park, Johannesburg | 1:00am | |||
| Sunday, August 29 | Venue | Time | |||
| South Africa vs Australia | Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria | 1:00am | |||
September | |||||
| Sunday, September 5 | Venue | Time | |||
| South Africa vs Australia | Vodacom Park, Bloemfontein | 1:00am | |||
| Saturday, September 11 | Venue | Time | |||
| Australia vs New Zealand | ANZ Stadium, Sydney | 8:00pm | |||
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