Major honours
Ireland is a rare case of a team combining the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland into a single side, singing a dedicated anthem, Ireland's Call, alongside the national anthem. The Irish Rugby Football Union unified in 1879, and under captain Brian O'Driscoll, Ireland won its first Grand Slam in 61 years in 2009, adding further Slams in 2018 and 2023 to establish itself as a late-professional-era power. In Chicago in 2016, Ireland finally beat New Zealand for the first time, 40-29, in its 29th meeting since their first encounter in 1905 — a gap of 111 years — and in 2022 it won a Test series in New Zealand 2-1. In September 2019, Ireland reached the number one world ranking for the first time. At the World Cup, though, it has reached the quarterfinal eight times without ever making a semifinal; the most painful was a 24-28 loss to New Zealand in the 2023 Paris quarterfinal. The structure feeding Ireland's four provincial pro teams — Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht — directly into the national side is the country's underlying strength.
Record comparison
Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.
Club legends
Rivalry
The match against England carries the full weight of the two nations' history, while 111 years and 28 matches without a win against New Zealand made the 2016 breakthrough — and everything since — the hottest fixture on Ireland's calendar.