Churchill Cup

Churchill Cup

Sport	Rugby union
Instituted	2003
Inaugural season	2003
Ceased	2011; 13 years ago (2011)
Number of teams	6
Country	Canada  England  United States + other invited nations
Holders	England Saxons (2011)

The Churchill Cup was an annual rugby union tournament, held in June, contested by representative men's (and formerly women's) teams from Canada, England, the United States, and other invited teams (originally one and later three) from a wide array of countries.

It began in 2003 as an initiative of the governing bodies of the three regular participants—Rugby Canada, the Rugby Football Union (RFU), and USA Rugby—in cooperation with the sport's worldwide governing body World Rugby (at the time called the "International Rugby Board" (IRB)).The main intent was to provide the US and Canada with regular international competition. The final edition in 2011 featured invited teams from Italy, Russia, and Tonga, and was won by England Saxons (that country's "A", or developmental, national team). All three governing bodies of the permanent participants agreed to end the tournament after its 2011 edition, as World Rugby will include the US and Canada in its international Test calendar from 2012. Canada and the USA will, however, continue to be supported by the RFU.^[1]

The tournament was named after British prime minister Winston Churchill.