The Bledisloe Cup is an annual
rugby competition between
Australia’s
Wallabies and
New Zealand’s
All Blacks
It was first contested in 1931 when Lord Bledisloe, New Zealand’s Governor-General donated the trophy. It stands at a metre high,and has a coating of pure silver (it also has a lid that is often mistaken for a hat by members of the winning team....rugby players, I dunno, never reknowed for a sophisticated sense of humour)
Due to the recent superiority of the Southern Hemisphere teams, (and especially during the 1970's and 1980's when South Africa's Springboks weren't playing internationals due to uproar about their policy of Apartheid) the Bledisloe Cup was seen as a clash of the titans. The victor of this game became widely accepted as the current world champion. New Zealand won over 70% of the tests for the first 60 years of the competitions existence, but recently the Wallabies have had the edge, winning three tests in a row in 1998 and holding onto the title in 1999
The game was originally a one-off match, but Test series over the years have changed from one-off clashes, to two-Test and most often three-Test series. Nowadays, they are always three-Test series (two of the three clashes are also Tri-Nations matches, the third is played purely for the Cup).