List of international rugby union teams

Multinational teams

Combination sides

• The British and Irish Lions, perhaps the most famous multi-national rugby team.
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• Established in 1950, East Africa has conducted seven tours between 1954 and 1982 and has played against incoming international, representative and club touring sides including twice against the British Lions; perhaps the only example of representative multinational teams playing against each other. They have also played against the Barbarians.
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• A similar development in 2004 has been of a Pacific Islanders XV.
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• The South American Jaguars were a combination team who played South Africa during the early 1980s.
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• The African Leopards are a development side drawn from across Africa, they have played representational rugby union against South African students.
• The Arabian Gulf rugby union team combined various teams from Arab countries in the Persian Gulf and competed in World Cup qualification. The Arabian Gulf Rugby Union has now been dismantled and responsibility for the game devolved to each of the member nations, although the team may be revived in the future.
• There is also a West Indies side, which first toured when the Caribbean Rugby Union sent a team to tour England in 1976. Their last tour was also to England in October and November 2000.
• The Commonwealth of Independent States also played during the early 1990s.
• World XV sides have also been fielded nine times between 1977 and 2014.

  Invitation sides

• The Barbarian Football Club is probably the most famous invitation side. It has spawned New Zealand Barbarians, South African Barbarians, and French Barbarians.
• Scorpions RFC are an East African equivalent existing and playing under a similar ethos to the Barbarians.

• President's Overseas XV, selected for the hundredth anniversary of the RFU
• Overseas Unions rugby union team
• Rest of the World XV
• Four Home Unions XV
• Rest of Europe XV
• In the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami a Northern hemisphere side took on a Southern hemisphere side in the IRB Rugby Aid Match:
• * Northern Hemisphere XV
• * Southern Hemisphere XV

  National teams – tier classification

Tier 1

Tier 2

• Pacific countries participate in the World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup. European countries participate in the Rugby Europe International Championships.

  Tier 3

Development One

Development Two

National teams – band classification

High performance

Development One

• Targeted

Developmental

Other teams

Defunct national sides

• Arabian Gulf* – dissolved by the end of 2010 and replaced by separate unions and national teams
• CIS*
• * – a combination of Kenya, Tanzania/Tanganyika and Uganda. It has not played since 1982 but the Rugby Football Union of East Africa still exists and there have been recent talks to resurrect the team
• - superseded by the Zimbabwe rugby team since 1980, the year of the country's sovereignty.
• – has not played since 1971 and so moribund
• For more information on these teams see [|above].

  Women's rugby

Defunct women's national sides

• Invitation sides

• Nomads