<!-- This article uses British English (neighbour, centre etc) with Cambridge spellings (-is- instead of -iz-). -->The
Wales national rugby union team represent
Wales in international
rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the
Six Nations Championship with
England,
France,
Ireland,
Italy and
Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with 26 wins. Wales most recent championship win came in
2008. They also compete in the
Rugby World Cup every four years. The
International Rugby Board (IRB) regards Wales as a
Tier One rugby nation, and
ranks them seventh in the world as of 9 May 2011.
The governing body, the
Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), was established in 1881, the same year that Wales played their first international against England. Wales' performances in the Home Nations Championship (now the Six Nations) continued to improve, experiencing their first 'golden age' between 1900 and 1911. They first played New Zealand, known as the
All Blacks, in 1905, when they defeated them 3–0 in a famous match at Cardiff Arms Park. Welsh rugby struggled between the first and second World Wars, but experienced a second 'golden age' between 1969 and 1980 when they won eight
Five Nations Championships (including 3 shared wins). They played in the inaugural Rugby World Cup in
1987 where they achieved their best ever...
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