Rugby's greatest rivals

[petite]

this is by far the most stupid post ever
what the hack does napoleon has to do with rugby?
and the guy who started this: man your options are pretty slim.
you shoud consider the rest of the world exsists. like the other day a watch a documentay on rugby history. it only featured aus nz sa and ire, eng, wales, scots 6 french
but the arg union is older tha the french by a lot. we dont even exsist.

 

[gamine]

Whatever happened to Wales v England? Linstening to New Zealanders (and not just Justin Marshal on Scrum V) the Wales England rivalry is much more intense than any in the southern hemisphere! So where is Wales England in this pole?

Dancing?

 

[megaresp]

England vs *anyone*?

Nobody likes us.

Not really true. But you're the patriarch, and can expect a bit of rebellion from the 'children' from time-to-time.



My favourite rival is Australia.

During my formative years the All Blacks weren't able to play against South Africa, and I have no sense of them being 'the foe'.

Australia developed into a serious rival during my early teens. I like the way they play, and most look forward to our games against them.

 

[The Jones Boy]

All Blacks vs Springboks.
Nothing better.

 

[Kiwi_]

I still consider Aussie to be our greatest rival, I grew up with their era of domination back in the late 90's early 00's when we couldn't get the Bledisloe back! But I respect SA rugby and their quality more than any other Union, always our toughest rival, going to Ellis Park is always a huge test and massive venue.

- - - Updated - - -

The Aussie rivarly kind of lost momentum with their slump in the last decade, but I think this current crop under Cheika and Hooper and Poeys quality has brought it right back and I love it. Nothing like the Trans-Tasman battles and RWC final.

 

[McTallshort]

England v France or England v Wales. Suprised 15 people have voted England V Ireland not really that big to be honest would have thought Wales V Ireland was a bigger rivalry.

 

[TJAY]

Pocock v Robshaw.

 

[ZeroTwo]

Pocock v Robshaw.

Unfortunately one side needs to compete to be considered rivals. Australia v England for me. Always hugely entertaining games with the jubilation and desolation clear on fans faces.

 

[Maverick1987]

England vs Wales or England vs Scotland for me

 

[RoosTah]

This is a bit of a tough one... the relationship with New Zealand has become pretty asymmetrical to the point that it's hard to justifiably claim we're (or anyone else for that matter) are genuine rivals to the ABs anymore. They've become like the Aussie Cricket team from the 90s to the mid 00s - just a cut above and not really having their mantle threatened.

From an Australian perspective I'd therefore say it's England v Australia, followed closely by South Africa v Aus - both teams we seem to lose and win a similar amount of games and both have long standing rivalries in other sports.

 

[meck01]

It depends on what country you com from.

Being an Aussie mine are:

1) Aus v NZ
2) Aus V SA
3) Aus V England
4) Aus V Ireland
5) Aus V Argentina

Although I don't think we (or anyone) rival the All Blacks at the moment.

Hopefully in years to come we can start winning at home at least and even break our NZ hoodoo.

 

[Jaguares]

NSW Blues vs QLD Maroons
Roosters vs Rabbitohs
Australia vs England
New Zealand vs Australia
England vs Wales
France vs England
Argentina vs Ireland
New Zealand vs South Africa
Australia vs South Africa
Scotland vs Italy
Canada vs USA
Chile vs Uruguay
Paraguay vs Brazil

 

[BringBack'the'Biff]

Relax youngster!your point is valid but so is my "SA ARE THE BEST" speech,at this very moment other than the sevens world cup we hold all major rugby tournament trophies that we competed in,including the sevens world series and we are the only team to ever do so and even if we never do it again we are the first and the only other team in the world that might match that are the All blacks.besides Lithuania breaking our record SA and NZ are joint holders of the 17 in a row record run of unbeaten games.See,even off the field the rivalry continues!

 

[BringBack'the'Biff]

But Rugby as a whole NZ currently has achevied something that I believe no other nation will duplicate at the same time, with their top men's and women's national sides holding all major trophies that they compete in, their men's and women's 7s teams (minus Olympic Gold) are current World Champions with their women's 7s team also World Seven Series Champs and their Under20s current World Champions.....and you may as well chuck their SuperRugby franchise the Crusaders in the mix for good measure

 

[FNS]

NZ vs Books
France vs England
Wales vs England
Arg vs France( lot of history in the 80 and tons of matches against them)

 

[FrenchFan]

I voted for NZ v Boks. The Eng-Fra rivalry is a relic. I mean what they call 'Le Crunch' now is media spin. It's not there any more. I don't see it on the pitch. The good old argy bargies are gone. It's become so sanitised. The rivalry has to come out in some way. The fans here don't talk about it anymore.

In the 6N I'd say the biggest rivalry is prob England - Wales.

 

[Lancashire Nick]

I would have thought that NZ v SA would be the biggest rivalry, because historically those have been the two powerhouses of world rugby.

Obviously there are some great rivalries within the 6 Nations, from an English point of view, the biggest rival varies depending on the quality of the respective nations. On balance, I'd say that over the last 44 years since i've been watching, usually England v France is the main one.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Hasn't this been Necroed enough?

 

[Caitlyn Jenner]

PNBHS vs NBHS >>>

 

[Red Enigma]

This survey covers rugby from year dot, The forum has several guys who love statistics so lets see which two test sides have played each other the most times when they were the Number One and Number Two teams in the world based on commonsense. In my 73 year lifetime I would be floored if it was not NZ v SA. and feel that applied earlier than my birth. (eg 1937 test series SA/NZ.). Sure other rivalries are brilliant and never to be denigrated, but surely the higher the level, the greater the significance.

In passing Caitlyn - WC v. NC. - at that college level