University of Canberra Brumbies

The Brumbies, named for the wild horses which inhabit Canberra's hinterland, are the team represents the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and southern New South Wales (NSW) regions.

The Brumbies were formed in 1996 to provide a third Australian franchise for the newly formed Super 12 (now Super 15/Super Rugby) competition. It was predicted that the Brumbies, made up of so-called 'rejects' - players not wanted by the other two teams - would perform poorly. Since then, they have enjoyed more success than all the other Australian teams combined, reaching five finals and winning two.

Melbourne Rebels

The Rebels made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011 and are the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia.

Super Rugby offers unprecedented opportunity for the game to leave an indelible impact on the Australian sporting landscape and for Melbourne Rebels to be the first winter football code in Victoria to be part of a regular and renowned international competition.

Manu Samoa Rugby Union

Named after a famous Samoan warrior, the national Rugby Union team of Samoa has a proud playing history, being ranked an impressive 12th in the current world rankings.

Though always destined to lose most of its top players to the iconic All Black jersey of New Zealand due to a unique Pacific Island/New Zealand player arrangement, Manu Samoa has still managed to make the quarter finals of two Rugby World Cups - 1991 and 1995.

Fiji Rugby Union

Known as the "Flying Fijians", the players who make up the Fiji national Rugby Union team and the Fiji Sevens team are regarded as some of the most entertaining and athletic on Earth.

Currently ranked 9th in the world, Fiji is a rugby-mad nation boasting over 80,000 players from a population of 950,000. In the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Fiji beat Wales 38-31 to make the quarter finals.

Fiji has won the most Pacific Tri-Nations Championships of the three teams participating and is the birthplace of All Black and Wallabies rugby legends Joe Rokococo, Sitiveni Sivivatu and Lote Tuqiri.

NZRL

The New Zealand National Rugby League Team are the current World Cup holders. As a team with roots that go back to the beginning of the last century, (they were the first rugby league team in the Southern Hemisphere), they played their first professional tour in 1907.

A proud and fiercely-intimidating team fired by the spirit of its many Maori and Pacific Island warriors, the New Zealand National Rugby League Team has played in every single Rugby League World Cup since its inception in 1954.

Canterbury Rugby Union

Incorporating teams like 7 times Super 12 Champions, the Crusaders The Canterbury Rugby Football Union (CRFU) is the governing body for Rugby Union in a large area the South Island of New Zealand.

Canterbury's top representative team has won New Zealand's top provincial rugby competition six times - five in the National Provincial Championships and once in the Air New Zealand Cup in the 2008 season.

With 47 clubs over their 3 sub-unions, Canterbury have the most clubs of all New Zealand rugby unions.

Tasman Rugby Union

The Tasman Rugby Union was formed in December 2005 to allow the region to field a team in the premier 2006 national provincial competition (then known as the Air New Zealand Cup).

The "Makos", as the Union’s team is known, was an amalgamation of the Nelson Bays and Marlborough Rugby Unions, thereby becoming New Zealand’s newest provincial union.

Nelson, considered The Home of Rugby in New Zealand, was where the first ever competitive rugby match took place in May 1870 at The Botanics between a Nelson College side and Nelson Football Club.

The Tasman Makos two venues are Lansdowne Park in Blenheim and Trafalgar Park in Nelson which underwent a major upgrade to secure the hosting of two matches in the 2011 RWC and which was largely completed in time for the 2010 NPC season, now known as the ITM Cup.

The Tasman Makos are a feeder to the Crusaders Super Rugby franchise based in Christchurch and since the clubs inception they have contributed numerous players to the Crusaders including current All Black Ben Franks and 2011 Makos Tom Marshall, Steve Alfeld, Joe Wheeler, Quentin McDonald and Jonathan Poff.