The 2017 mid-year rugby union internationals (also known as the summer internationals in the Northern Hemisphere) were international rugby union matches that were mostly played in the Southern Hemisphere during the June international window.
The matches were part of World Rugby's Global rugby calendar (2012–19) that includes Test matches between the touring Northern Hemisphere nations and the home Southern Hemisphere nations. In addition to this, the global calendar gives Tier 2 nations the opportunity to play Tier 1 nations outside the November international window, increasing competitiveness from the Tier 2 sides.
Australia, the only southern hemisphere Tier 1 nation not to host a test series, staged three one-off test matches; Scotland, Italy and Fiji. The Fijian test was the first between the two sides in Australia since 2010, and was also the first Australia v Tier 2 nation match in Australia since Samoa visited in 2011. Fiji also played host to Italy and Scotland to become the second Tier 2 nation to play three back-back Tier 1 sides during an international window, after Samoa participated in the South African quadrangular tournament in 2013. En route to their test matches in Australia and Fiji, Italy and Scotland played each other in Singapore, which was the first ever Tier 1 v Tier 1 match played in the country.[1]
For Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the matches acted as warm-ups ahead of the 2017 Rugby Championship. It was also a historic match when Kenya hosted Germany as the teams had never played each other before.
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