| Bledisloe Cup |
Website Links For Cup |
Information AboutBledisloe Cup |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT BLEDISLOE CUP | |
| rugby union competitions | |
| rugby union trophies and awards | |
|
Rugby Union's Bledisloe Cup is contested between Australia's Wallabies and New Zealand's All Blacks . It is named for Lord Bledisloe , the Governor-General Of New Zealand who donated the trophy in 1931 . There is some dispute as to when the first Bledisloe Cup match was first played. The Australian Rugby Union contend that the one-off 1931 match played at Eden Park was first. However, no firm evidence has been produced to support this claim, and the New Zealand Rugby Football Union believe that the first match was when New Zealand toured Australia in 1932 . Between 1931 and 1981 it was contested irregularly in the course of rugby tours between the two countries. New Zealand won it 19 times and Australia four times in this period. In the years 1982 to 1995 it was contested annually, sometimes as a series of three matches and other times in a single match. During these years New Zealand won it 11 times and Australia three times. Since , and Australia won it in 1998. From 1999 through 2005 , the third match was not played; during those years, Australia and New Zealand played each other twice as part of the Tri Nations for the cup. If each team won one of these games, or if both games were drawn, the cup was retained by its current holder. The non-holder had to win the two games 2-0 or 1-0 (with a draw) to regain the Cup. A criticism of this system was that with the closeness in the level of ability between the two sides, years where each team won one game each were very common (1999, 2000, 2002, 2004) and in these years, many rugby fans felt dissatisfied with one team keeping the cup in a series tied at 1-1. From 2006 onwards, the Bledisloe Cup will again be played for over a 3 match series, as the Tri Nations has been lengthened so that each participating nation plays the others three times instead of twice. This will ensure that in most seasons, a clear winner of the Bledisloe Cup will be found. If the All Blacks and Wallabies play each other in a non-Tri-Nations game (e.g. they are drawn to play each other at a World Cup), the Bledisloe Cup is not on offer. RESULTS
SEE ALSO |
|
|