Rugby union is a popular sport in the British Isles (Great Britain and Ireland), including England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The game was arguably invented in 1823 by William Webb Ellis, and in 1871 the English Rugby Football Union was the first national rugby football union to be founded. It is organised separately in each of these countries, and also on an all-Ireland basis.
Rugby union in the British Isles is discussed in the following articles, corresponding to the separate organisations governing the sport:
And also in the Crown Dependencies:
And also in various British Overseas Territories:
However areas where the sport is similar between the Home Nations will be discussed in this article.
Unlike in rugby league, no combined British and Irish national rugby union team has ever competed in a major tournament such as the Rugby World Cup. Instead, the British & Irish Lions go on tours to the traditional Southern Hemisphere nations of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, currently occurring on a four-year cycle; the first was an 1888 tour to New Zealand and Australia. The team also plays in select one-off matches as preparation for the tour test series.
In major competition the Home Nations represent themselves as:
See main article: Great Britain women's national rugby union team. There is also a unified Great Britain women's national rugby union team; however, in most cases, women's rugby also sees the Home Nations represented individually by:
The Home Nations run individual competition across four league systems:
Each national team has their own national stadium:
| Competition | Year | Home Nations who Hosted |
|---|---|---|
| Rugby World Cup Sevens | 1993 | |
| 1997 |  British Hong Kong | |
| Rugby sevens at the Commonwealth Games | 2002 | |
| 2014 | ||
| 2022 |
Rugby Sevens is a version of Rugby Union played with seven players per side instead of the usual fifteen. The home nations field individual national teams however the, what could be considered the United Kingdom's greatest achievement in the sport came in the 2016 Summer Olympics, as two united Great Britain teams competed in the inaugural edition of the sport's tournament at the Summer Olympics. The Great Britain teams were formed only ten weeks prior to the games and saw the men's team reach the final achieving a runners up place,[1] and the women's team achieved fourth.[2]