Churchill Cup
Encyclopedia : C : CH : CHU : Churchill Cup
The Churchill Cup (referred to as Barclays Churchill Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament contested by representative men's and women's teams from Canada, England, and the United States, with three invited teams (originally one). The tournament is named after former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Overview
The tournament was first held in 2003 with only Canada, England and the USA taking part. The tournament was set up to improve the calibre and profile of rugby in North America, and also to help develop English players not yet part of the national team. Because of the gap in skill levels, the England A side, rebranded in 2006 as England Saxons, took part instead of the full England men's side; however, the full England women's side participated.In 2004, New Zealand was invited, being represented by the New Zealand Māori men's team and the women's representative team, the Black Ferns. In 2005, Argentina sent its A side to the men's competition. Originally, New Zealand Māori had been invited, but they declined because it would clash with their fixture with the British and Irish Lions. There was no women's competition in 2005, nor will there be one in 2006, as Canada is preparing to host the Women's Rugby World Cup in 2006.
Currently, the competition is scheduled only through 2007, as the original contract between Rugby Canada, the Rugby Football Union (England) and USA Rugby was a five-year deal. Under the agreement, Canada would host the first three events, while the USA had an option to host in 2006 and 2007. However, because USA Rugby is now involved in hosting the Los Angeles Sevens tournament in the World Sevens Series, it allowed Canada to be the principal host in 2006, and will likely do so in 2007 as well. The 2006 competition saw matches in the USA for the first time, in San Francisco (more precisely, in the Silicon Valley city of Santa Clara), and three Canadian cities hosted matches: Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa.
The organizers increased the number of men's teams competing from four to six, effective with the 2006 competition. South Africa and Wales had expressed an interest, but Ireland and Scotland accepted invitations for 2006. Both sent A sides to the competition, and the New Zealand Māori returned that year as well.
Results
| Year | Venue(s) | Men's Winner | Women's Winner |
| 2003 | Vancouver | England A | England |
| 2004 | Calgary and Edmonton | New Zealand Māori | New Zealand |
| 2005 | Edmonton | England A | No competition |
| 2006 | Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, and San Francisco | New Zealand Māori | No competition |
For detailed results from a given year's competition (including the current year's), please see the relevant year's tournament's article, where one exists.
See also
- 2006 Churchill Cup
- Argentina national rugby union team
- Canada national rugby union team
- England national rugby union team
- Ireland national rugby union team
- New Zealand Māori rugby union team
- Scotland national rugby union team
- United States national rugby union team
- Rugby union in Canada
External links
- [Churchill Cup] official site
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.