We have collected data of nearly 3000 players who participated in the Rugby Championship or the Rugby World Cup since the tournament’s inception in 1987, to find out what city has produced the most professional rugby players around the world.
According to the results of the analysis, if data from World Cup and Championship are combined: Auckland, New Zealand has produced the most professional rugby players – 118. Buenos Aires, Argentina is in second place – 88 professional rugby players were born there. Sydney, Australia is third, having produced 58 professional rugby players
When considering countries, the United Kingdom has produced the most players - 473 - and New Zealand (369) and South Africa (253) are in second and third place, respectively.
If looking only at players who were part of the winning teams in their respective tournaments Auckland, NZ has produced the most overall winners - 23, with Christchurch, NZ (13) & Brisbane, Australia (10) in second and third place, respectively.
Rugby World Cup & Rugby Championship
We have also looked at the results when the World Cup & Championship data are divided.
Rugby World Cup
Buenos Aires, Argentina has produced the most Rugby World Cup players - 138, with Auckland, NZ (135) and Sydney, Australia (82) in second and third place, respectively.
Auckland, NZ produced the most Rugby World Cup Winners -11, with Brisbane, Australia (9) and Christchurch, NZ (7) in second and third place, respectively.
Rugby Championship
Buenos Aires, Argentina has also produced the most Rugby Championship players - 31, with Sydney, Australia (30) and Auckland, NZ (27) in second and third place, respectively.
Auckland, NZ has also produced the most Rugby Championship winners - 12, with Christchurch, NZ and Wellington, NZ tying for second place with 8 winners.
Methodology
- Players participating in the Rugby World Cup were collected since 1987 until the latest World Cup (2019)
- Players participating in the Rugby Championship were collected since 2006 until 2022 (Between 2006-2011, the tournament was still called Tri Nations, and in 2020, this was also the name of the tournament yet it is included in the Championship data)
- Where place of birth of a player was missing, they were omitted from the analysis
- Data was found through official wikipedia pages of the respective tournaments and the official websites of the tournaments
