Governing bodies

See also: World Rugby and Timeline of foundation of national rugby unions

Member and Associated Unions

  Member Union

  Associated Union

The international governing body of rugby union (and associated games such as sevens) is World Rugby (WR).^[85] The WR headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland.^[85] WR, founded in 1886, governs the sport worldwide and publishes the game's laws and rankings.^[85] As of February 2014, WR (then known as the IRB, for International Rugby Board) recorded 119 unions in its membership, 101 full members and 18 associate member countries.^[2] According to WR, rugby union is played by men and women in over 100 countries.^[85] WR controls the Rugby World Cup,^[85] the Women's Rugby World Cup,^[86] Rugby World Cup Sevens,^[87] HSBC Sevens Series,^[88] HSBC Women's Sevens Series,^[89] World Under 20 Championship,^[90] World Under 20 Trophy,^[91] Nations Cup^[92] and the Pacific Nations Cup.^[93] WR holds votes to decide where each of these events are be held, except in the case of the Sevens World Series for men and women, for which WR contracts with several national unions to hold individual events.
Six regional associations, which are members of WR, form the next level of administration; these are:

• Rugby Africa, formerly Confederation of African Rugby (CAR)^[94]
• Asia Rugby, formerly Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU)^[95]
• Rugby Americas North, formerly North America Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA)^[96]
• Rugby Europe, previously Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur – Association Européenne de Rugby (FIRA-AER)^[97]
• Oceania Rugby, formerly Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions (FORU)^[98]
• Sudamérica Rugby, formerly Confederación Sudamericana de Rugby (South American Rugby Confederation, or CONSUR)^[99]

SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby) is a joint venture of the South African Rugby Union, the New Zealand Rugby Union, the Australian Rugby Union and the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) that operates Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship (formerly the Tri Nations before the entry of Argentina).^[100] Although UAR initially had no representation on the former SANZAR board, it was granted input into the organisation's issues, especially with regard to The Rugby Championship,^[101] and became a full SANZAAR member in 2016 (when the country entered Super Rugby).
National unions oversee rugby union within individual countries and are affiliated to WR. Since 2016, the WR Council has 40 seats. A total of 11 unions—the eight foundation unions of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France, plus Argentina, Canada and Italy—have two seats. In addition, the six regional associations have two seats. Four more unions—Georgia, Japan, Romania and the USA—have one seat each. Finally, the Chairman and Vice Chairman, who usually come from one of the eight foundation unions (although the current Vice Chairman, Agustín Pichot, is with the non-foundation Argentine union) have one vote each.^[102][85]