International rugby don't have friendly games

Hey Eamomn, love your rugby reactions. Just a pointer, every rugby international is called a test match and is as far removed from a friendly as you can get. Unlike football/soccer which have friendlies all the time, with umpteen substitutions, often quite farcical and boring to watch. This is a 2 test series and means absolutely everything to NZ and England as you can see from these highlights. The "rosters" for both teams were as strong as could be, barring a few injured players and of course retirees on both sides after the World Cup. Really looking forward to next week in Auckland for the 2nd Test.

This is the first international test window, a time when northern hemisphere and souther hemisphere teams can play each other because all the club competitions have ended, so all the international teams are playing atm, Ireland vs south africa, England vs the ABs, Australia vs Wales, Argentina vs France etc.. Canada play Romainia on the weekend, and international matches are called tests, most have a trophy involved I forgot what the England/NZ one is called. You should try watching some live highlights don't do the game justice, from a physicality and speed perspective.

Fun fact: The guy at the end doing the interview is Jeff Wilson, he is known as a Double All Black. He represented NZ in both Rugby and Cricket.

They play for points to go towards their International rankings. Don't ask me how it works. I'm sure there only 5 people in the entire world that knows how the points are allocated.

2:20 The teams usually post the squads on their Instagram accounts in the week. South Africa usually post on a Tuesday, while the other countries post on Thursdays.

Good that you checked out the match, although such short highlights hardly tell the story of the game. And as others have mentioned, the All Blacks have played England 44 times since 1905 and none of them were "friendlies'. In the context of the sport and those who love it, it matters every time. The best teams possible are selected.

Ricardo here from South Africa. Apart from the World Cup there is a cycle for top tier nations to play each other. The different hemispheres and seasons means that after regular club and franchise seasons, national teams will play each other. Hence, you see Northen Hemisphere Nations now visting Southern Hemisphere Nations. and around November-December it is the reverse. As you can see from the comments, we don't do friendly in rugby.

The test match is the End of the top Professional rugby competition or season, they have an international Test

Ive never understood the "friendly" idea... as others have said Rugby doesn't have them.

The world cup is the ultimate in rugby but being that rugby was a game spread by the empire and enthusiastically followed by former colonies the the British lions is still big as are the annual competitions in both hemisphere six nations up north the rugby championship down south this is in addition to very competitive club/provincial competition there is now a need and growing desire for a global season much along the lines of rugby league it's still very much talked about these matches go towards global rankings points also

These are test matches friendly only exists after the game

You should react to South Africa VS Ireland and also wales vs australia

Test match is the term, they are never friendly haha

Canada played Scotland last weekend!

Just type in rugby the team games for 2025

Eamonn - it's totally pointless watching a 5 min highlights clip and then commenting on any sport event - get real