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Home countries |
Home Nations (often written as the common noun home nations) is a collective term often used in sports to refer to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which together form the United Kingdom.
In most sports, Northern Ireland does not have its own international team, as the whole island of Ireland fields a single national team, called "Ireland". The term "home nations" has extended to include Irish national teams in many sports (such as rugby union and hockey), which draw players from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (which is a separate country from the UK).
Occasionally the term Home Countries is used.1
'Home Nations' is often used in reference to sporting events in which each country competes separately, such as rugby union's Six Nations Championship and the now defunct British Home Championship in association football.
Between 1883 and 1909, what is now the Six Nations was played between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and was known as the Home International Championship. It reverted to that name when, from 1932 to 1939, France was excluded from the tournament even though, by then, Ireland had been partitioned into Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Irish Free State (Ireland from 1949). The term "Home Nations" continues to be used in rugby union and rugby league2 even though the Ireland national rugby union team and Ireland national rugby league team draw players from the entire island. The term "Home Union" is used to refer to the four national governing bodies.3
In association football, the British Home Championship (also known as the Home International Championship) was an annual competition contested between the UK's four national teams, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (later, Northern Ireland), between 1884-1914, 1919-1939, and 1946-1984.
Other sports which use the term "Home Nations" include boxing, cricket, curling,4 cycling,1 disabled sports,4 fencing, hockey, golf, mountaineering, rowing, skiing, swimming and tennis.citation needed
The term is also used to refer to the seven representative teams — England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey — from the British Islands that participate in the Commonwealth Games.1
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