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Rugby unlon is the unofficial national sport of New Zealand The national team, the Ali Blacks, is currently ranked the second best International rugby team in the world. after South Africa. The sport has been known in New Zealand sińce 1870 The top domestic competitions are the seml-professional ITM Cup and amateur Heartland Championship. and above them Super Rugby, In which New Zealand has five Franchises The country co-hosted and won the First ever Rugby World Cup In 1987, and hosted and won the 2011 Rugby World Cup. They have won three World Cups, tled with South Africa, the most ot any other country. They are also the current World Champlons in 7s rugby tor men and women.

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New Zealand is a major skiing destination in the Southern Hemisphere, due to its high latitude, mountainous terrain, and well-developed economy and tourism industry. The ski season in New Zealand starts in mid-June and in good winters can run through to the start of November. Most of the skifields are in the South Island, with four in the North Island. There are both major commercial resorts, and smaller intrepid and Club skifields which provide access to affordable skiing for club members. There are also specialist backcountry skiing areas such as Mount Potts and lnvincible Snowfields which provide heliskiing and snowcat skiing for adventure-seekers.New Zealand has competed at most Winter Olympics sińce 1952, when Sir Roy McKenzie led a team. In 1992 Annelise Coberger became the first person from the Southern Hemisphere to win a medal at the Winter Olympics when she won silver in the slalom at Albertville in France.

The New Zealand national football team represents New Zealand in intemational association football. The team is controlled by the goveming body for football in New Zealand, New Zealand Football (NZF), which is currently a member of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). The team's official nickname is the Ali Whites. New Zealand is a five-time OFC champion The team represented New Zealand at the FIFA World Cup toumaments in 1982 and 2010, and the FIFA Confederations Cup toumaments in 1999, 2003, 2009 and 2017. Because most New Zealand football clubs are semi-professional rather than fully professional, most Professional New Zealand footballers play for clubs in English-speaking countries such as England, the United States and Australia.

The New Zealand national crlcket team represents New Zealand in men‘s International cricket. Nicknamed the Black Caps, they played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. From 1930 New Zealand had to wait until 1956, morę than 26 years, for its first Test victory, against the West Indies at Eden Park in Auckland. They played their first ODI in the 1972-73 season against Pakistan in Christchurch. The current captain in all formats of the gamę is Kane Williamson. who replaced Brendon McCullum after the latteris retirement in December 2015. The national team is organised by New Zealand Cricket. The New Zealand cricket team became known as the Black Caps in January 1998, after its sponsor at the time, Clear Communications, held a competition to choose a name for the team. This is one of many national team nicknames related to the All Blacks.