Northern Ireland 2016. The six counties of Northern Ireland are among the nine governed by the Ulster branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union, the governing body of rugby union in Ireland. Ulster is one of the four professional provincial teams in Ireland and competes in the Pro14 and European Cup. It won the European Cup in 1999. In international competitions, the Ireland national rugby union team's recent successes include four Triple Crowns between 2004 and 2009 and a Grand Slam in 2009 in the Six Nations Championship. Northern Ireland plays as the Ireland cricket team which represents both Northern Ireland and
Grand Slam (rugby union) common again, as the number of Tests on each tour has again increased. The All Blacks' tours of 2005 and 2008 were originally planned to include only three Test matches; the late inclusion of matches against Wales and England respectively turned these into Grand Slam tours. Grand Slam (rugby union) In rugby union, a Grand Slam (Irish: "Caithréim Mhór". Welsh: "Y Gamp Lawn". French: "Grand Chelem") occurs when one team in the Six Nations Championship (or its Five Nations predecessor) manages to beat all the others during one year's competition. This has been achieved 39 times in total, for the