Rugby union in South Africa is a highly popular team sport, along with cricket and football, and is widely played all over the country. The national team is among the strongest in the world and has been ranked in at least the top seven of the World Rugby Rankings since its inception in 2003. The country hosted and won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and won again in 2007 and 2019. As with much else in South Africa, the organisation and playing of rugby has been entangled with politics, and racial politics in particular.