As they emerged from their battles for emancipation, the new nations encountered other difficulties.
Cooper was jeered by some New Zealanders in the crowd in Wellington last Saturday, and was called a "boofhead" by the Wallabies' 1991 World Cup-winning captain Nick Farr-Jones recently after taunting Richie McCaw during the countries' Tri-Nations encounters and escaping punishment for kneeing the All Blacks skipper in the face.
Eight years after its founding, the United States, then the world's youngest nation, encountered the Middle Kingdom, one of the world's oldest.
A ref's life is never an easy one, but no one could have predicted what would happen to David McHugh as he presided over a Tri-Nations encounter between South Africa and New Zealand at Kings Park, Durban.
He scored eight tries in the 1999 tournament in England and Wales, including one against England, for whom he was proving to be a nemesis, and there were other highlights including the late winning try in 2000 against Australia in an epic Tri-Nations encounter in Sydney before a crowd of 109,874, the largest ever for a rugby union game.
Jan . 26 , 20167 26 p.m. Jan . 26 , 20164 37 p.m. MSNBC and the New Hampshire Union-Leader announced Tuesday that they planned to hold a debate days before the state's first primary in the nation, encountering immediate resistance from the Democratic National Committee.
Arsenal players will be at the heart of a big home nations clash as England face Scotland in Friday's Cyprus Cup Group A encounter in Larnaca.
It usually involves a witty, stumbling narrator simultaneously charmed and bemused by the foreign nation he encounters.
Journeying across this ancient nation, Grossman encounters an obdurate people who suffered greatly at the hands of the Turks and then the Soviets.
Mr. Aslund, the economist, said that the Baltic nations were encountering unrest because their economies were "overheated," but that similar outbreaks were likely to spread throughout the former Soviet Union.
Northern Ireland take on Bosnia-Herzegovina in their opening Nations Cup encounter before a Windsor Park friendly with Israel on Tuesday.
