A Test match in rugby union is an unofficial but widely used term for a match recognised as being a full international^[1] by at least one of the participating team's governing bodies - although a team does not need to represent a single country in order for it to be a Test match (for example the British and Irish Lions, World XV and the Pacific Islanders rugby union teams). The first men's international game of rugby union - between Scotland and England - was played at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh, the home ground of Edinburgh Academicals, on March 27, 1871. (This being six years before the first cricket test match, one year before the first association football international and twenty-four years before the first field hockey international.)

The first recorded use of the word in relation to sport occurs in 1861^[2] when it was used (especially by journalists) to designate the most important (but at that stage non-international) games played as part of a cricket tour by an (unofficial) English team to Australia and it is thought to arise from the idea that the matches were a "test of strength and competency" between the sides involved. When official and fully representative Australian and English cricket and rugby teams began touring each other's countries a decade or so later the term gradually began to be applied by journalists exclusively to the international fixtures on each tour, though this was not widespread until well into the 1880s.

The ICC (cricket's international governing body) tightly controls the application of "test match" status for that sport, but the International Rugby Board (IRB) has no similar role in the official awarding of "test match" or "full international" status in rugby union. In rugby union test match status and a "Test caps" may be awarded by either team's governing body to the players participating in a match regardless of the actions of their opponents.

Although both team's governing bodies do not need to recognise the match as a Test match for caps to be awarded, it is rare that they should disagree. There have been some instances of this in the past - for example, during the 1920s the New South Wales Waratahs played matches against New Zealand's All Blacks. As there was very little rugby union played in Australia outside of New South Wales the Australian Rugby Union retrospectively awarded caps to the players from the 1920s Waratahs that played against the All Blacks, however the New Zealand Rugby Union has not done the same for All Blacks that played in those matches. However, rugby's professionalism and widespread international media coverage means that it is almost inconceivable that Unions would disagree over the status of a game today.

On the other hand in women's rugby matters are far less clear. The first women's "test" took place in 1982 between Netherlands and France, but the sport was not widely accepted or recognised by many existing national Unions or the IRB for many years, nor has it ever attracted significant media interest. Some unions do not officially recognise any tests played before they became responsible for the women's game - for example the French Union (FFR) does not list any games before 1989[1], and the IRB did not (until recently) recognise the first two World Cups.

Nor is the problem confined to history. Some countries - particularly England, but also occasionally other major nations - continue to this day to award caps based on the strength of the side they have selected, rather than make-up of the opposition or of the status of the tournament entered. As recently as December 2008 a game between England and an Irish President's XV was recorded as a "test match" by RFUW even though their hosts and opponents insist that this was not the case^[3]. A similar difference of interpretation applies to a two match series between USA and Canada in 2007 where in games previously advertised as internationals the USA decided to field only development XVs. Canada count these games as test matches, USA do not. Overall the status of perhaps 5% of women's test matches is unclear.

[edit] See also

• List of rugby union terms

• Women's international rugby union

• History of rugby union: First international game

[edit] Notes