South Africa

The Springboks trace back to a single fixture in Cape Town on 30 July 1891, when a South African side took the field against a touring British Isles team. Fifteen years later, on their first trip to Britain and France, captain Paul Roos settled on a name before the English press could invent one of their own: he picked the springbok, an antelope known for speed and endurance, and it stuck.

The governing body took longer to settle. The South African Rugby Union was formed only in 1992, when the old South African Rugby Board, founded in 1889, merged with the non-racial South African Rugby Union.

They have never settled on a single ground either. Test matches move between Ellis Park in Johannesburg, Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, Kings Park in Durban, Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein and grounds in Cape Town and Nelspruit, with Ellis Park the largest at 62,567.

Four World Cup wins mark the record: 1995, 2007, 2019 and 2023.