Which is the biggest rivalry of each national team?

[Big Ewis]

We have a special relationship with Argentina, yes... for a long time, Argentina and Italy were kind of the little brothers, until Argentina started beating us every ****ing time we played them. It's nothing like England, though.

yup...strange how they became our "bete noire"...
they really started existing in the Rugby world right around the end of the 90's and started beating good sides, but still against us it's this strange complex we have now...we'll have to see what happens these coming weeks.

 

[Teh Mite]

Lots of British infantry in the Napoleonic era were also German troops(see the King's German legion as a prime example), as Hanover was actually part of the British Empire along with other smaller principlaities. Hanover left the British Empire only after Victoria ascended the throne since Salic law prevented Hanover from being ruled by a woman. If you look at the order of battle from Waterloo only a third of Wellington's troops were even British, and this dosen't even count the Irish, Scottish, Welsh(and handful's of men who were born elsewhere eg. American loyalists), so the numbers of English troops probably only represents a fraction of the total force.

The English are always the scape goats when blaming/hating the British for historical things. E.g. The Troubles came about as resentment towards the English over the actions of the Black and Tans, despite the Tans being a mixed bag of freelance mercenarys but predominantly Scottish. The British ordered their formation so the English take the blame.

 

[willrobinson]

lets be honest every team wants to stuff england,

ireland
scotland
wales
france
aussies
springboks
all Blacks ? (dont no much about all blacks)

all come over hear with one thing in mind battering england !!!!

 

[nickdnz]

I don't think New Zealander's really think of England as big rivals. Not to say they don't want to win against them, just unlike our biggest rivals South Africa, Australia and France, we haven't really had our hearts broken by England in an important match - at least not in a very long time.

 

[187]

Tonga's is most definitely Samoa. There is no other team we enjoy beating more than them.. Except that time we beat France at RWC2011.. The win against Samoa at RWC2007 has to be one of the best wins because it was on the world stage.
Aaahhh makes me smile just reminiscing about it haha.


Wellington Lions | Wellington Hurricanes | All Blacks | 'Ikale Tahi & now England!

 

[Kiwiwomble]

I would throw out there AB's v France, we've had some pretty decent games over the last 25 years. I would agree that the tri nations has diluted any rivalry i feel with Aussie or RSA...if you loose...you'll get at least two more chances to win before the end of the year...its a little boring

 

[nickdnz]

I would throw out there AB's v France, we've had some pretty decent games over the last 25 years. I would agree that the tri nations has diluted any rivalry i feel with Aussie or RSA...if you loose...you'll get at least two more chances to win before the end of the year...its a little boring

It's a bit less now - 2 games a year against South Africa. Still wouldn't mind 1 game a year - but we'd need two more teams to join the RC. We've certainly played Australia WAAAAAY too much. It's been four games a year for quite a while...

 

[RyotoTheDragon]

Tonga's is most definitely Samoa. There is no other team we enjoy beating more than them.. Except that time we beat France at RWC2011.. The win against Samoa at RWC2007 has to be one of the best wins because it was on the world stage.
Aaahhh makes me smile just reminiscing about it haha.


Wellington Lions | Wellington Hurricanes | All Blacks | 'Ikale Tahi & now England!

Haha it must have been (regarding the win in 07). Samoa were heavy favourites also considering they had some kind of winning streak against tonga. That tournament people were talking about Samoa giving the tier 1 teams in that pool a run, when actually Tonga came close to besting south africa.

 

[Superalexmarket]

I always thought that the islands classic was Samoa vs Fiji...

 

[Kiwiwomble]

It's a bit less now - 2 games a year against South Africa. Still wouldn't mind 1 game a year - but we'd need two more teams to join the RC. We've certainly played Australia WAAAAAY too much. It's been four games a year for quite a while...

I've said before i wouldn't mid if the Tri nations became Bi annual in years either side of the world cup, Lions could tour all three nations in the fouth year?

 

[Feicarsinn]

The English are always the scape goats when blaming/hating the British for historical things. E.g. The Troubles came about as resentment towards the English over the actions of the Black and Tans, despite the Tans being a mixed bag of freelance mercenarys but predominantly Scottish. The British ordered their formation so the English take the blame.

No they didn't. The troubles were a result of the repression of the Catholic civil rights movement in Northern Ireland in the late 60's. The Black and Tans were a group of ex British Army soldiers who were used during the war of independence around 1920 to enforce British rule, but ended up committing a number of atrocities and rightly went down as one of the most hated military outfits of all time. Two relatively unrelated aspects of 20th century Irish history.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

LOL

I knew this thread would churn up Anglophobia sooner or later as almost every country in the top 10 (amongst others) bar NZ has bad blood with England. I've already had my say on this forum so won't pester our poor English friends over history again.

 

[Feicarsinn]

A dislike of ignorance does not equate to a dislike of the English.

 

[William18]

I've said before i wouldn't mid if the Tri nations became Bi annual in years either side of the world cup, Lions could tour all three nations in the fouth year?

Next year, rather than having the Rugby Championship, we should just have New Zealand touring South Africa (or vice-versa) for a four test series with multiple mid week matches. Then France can tour Argentina so everyone gets some rugby. This would be the ideal situation. Life isn't like that though and we need the Rugby Championship annually for the money it provides.

 

[Teh Mite]

No they didn't. The troubles were a result of the repression of the Catholic civil rights movement in Northern Ireland in the late 60's. The Black and Tans were a group of ex British Army soldiers who were used during the war of independence around 1920 to enforce British rule, but ended up committing a number of atrocities and rightly went down as one of the most hated military outfits of all time. Two relatively unrelated aspects of 20th century Irish history.

The crucial part is resentment towards the English because of them, even though they were a bassetts all sorts collection featuring more nationalities then the Northampton job ccentre on a Tuesday morning.


Details about when what was is irrelevant in this context (drop the first half of the original sencence highlighted and it still applies).

 

[Feicarsinn]

The crucial part is resentment towards the English because of them, even though they were a bassetts all sorts collection featuring more nationalities then the Northampton job ccentre on a Tuesday morning.


Details about when what was is irrelevant in this context (drop the first half of the original sencence highlighted and it still applies).

Well we'll have to agree to differ on this one. Resentment towards the British in Ireland stems from Cromwell through to the battle of the Boyne onto the 1798 rising, the potato famine and on to the shootings of the 1916 leaders before we even reach the war for independence.

In any case, the reason that England will always ship most of the blame for the like of that is the same reason that the Celtic countries will each view England as their biggest rival. Big fish in a small pond. When you're a 50 million odd nation surrounded by countries 1/10th your size and have been the dominant force in the region throughout history you can't expect any different.

 

[Teh Mite]

If its any consolation, Cromwell was none too popular here either.

 

[Feicarsinn]

If its any consolation, Cromwell was none too popular here either.

Aye, I hear he was the life of the party

I feel I should establish that I have no feelings of dislike towards the English whatsoever. Whatever happened in the past happened long before I was born. All this 800 years lark is pretty irrelevant if you weren't alive for any of them. Considering the massive cultural similarities it's sheer hypocrisy for an Irish person to say they dislike England, especially when you see Irish people supporting English soccer clubs, watching English tv, etc.

The only thing that grinds my gears is being called British abroad (happens a lot of here actually). Of course that's no Britain's fault, merely a lack of info about what must seem a fairly minor issue for Americans, Canadians, etc.

 

[lucky number 7]

I hate when people believe I'm British.

I even have a whole host of retorts to hit back with should the need arise.

I typed a load of them out but decided against posting them...Some of them are rather offensive.


Might I add I harbour no distaste towards the British.

 

[Feicarsinn]

I hate when people believe I'm British.

I even have a whole host of retorts to hit back with should the need arise.

I typed a load of them out but decided against posting them...Some of them are rather offensive.


Might I add I harbour no distaste towards the British.

Impossible. Canadians are too nice to be mean to.