List of international rugby union teams

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The following is a list of international rugby union teams:

National teams – band classification

Starting in 2008, in addition to the existing tier system, the IRB introduced a four-band system of classification in which unions are classified based on "their development status and record on the international stage". The new structure is:[1]

High performance

All countries previously in Tiers 1 and 2.

Development One

These are countries earmarked for increased developmental funding and include:

Targeted

The IRB did not release a list of unions in this category, but named several as World Cup hopefuls being in this band:

Developmental

European
countries
North-South American
countries
African
countries
Asian
countries
Oceanian
countries
 Andorra
 Austria
 Azerbaijan
 Bosnia and Herzegovina
 Bulgaria
 Croatia
 Cyprus
 Czech Republic
 Denmark
 Finland
 Greece
 Hungary
 Israel
 Latvia
 Lithuania
 Luxembourg
 Malta
 Moldova
 Monaco
 Norway
 Serbia
 Slovakia
 Slovenia
 Sweden
  Switzerland
 Turkey
 Ukraine
 Bahamas[2]
 Barbados[2]
 Bermuda[2]
 British Virgin Islands[2]
 Cayman Islands[2]
 Colombia[3]
 Costa Rica[3]
 Guatemala[3]
 Guyana[2]
 Jamaica[2]
 Mexico
 Panama[3]
 Peru[3]
 Saint Lucia[2]
 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines[2]
 Trinidad and Tobago[2]
 Venezuela[3]
 Algeria
 Botswana
 Burundi
 Burkina Faso
 Cameroon
 DR Congo
 Egypt
 Eswatini
 Ghana
 Lesotho
 Madagascar
 Mali
 Mauritius
 Morocco
 Nigeria
 Rwanda
 Senegal
 Tanzania
 Togo
 Tunisia
 Uganda
 Zambia
 Brunei
 China
 Chinese Taipei
 Guam
 India
 Indonesia
 Iran
 Jordan
 Kazakhstan
 Kyrgyzstan
 Laos
 Lebanon
 Mongolia
   Nepal
 Pakistan
 Philippines
 Qatar
 Singapore
 Syria
 Thailand
 United Arab Emirates
 Uzbekistan
 American Samoa
 Cook Islands
 Niue
 Papua New Guinea
 Solomon Islands
 Vanuatu

World Rugby associates in italics

Other teams

Rugby Africa teams not affiliated to World Rugby

Asia Rugby teams not affiliated to World Rugby


Rugby Europe teams not affiliated to World Rugby

Rugby Americas North teams not affiliated to World Rugby

Oceania Rugby teams not affiliated to World Rugby

Sudamerica Rugby
teams not affiliated to World Rugby

Teams with affiliation suspended or without affiliation

Multinational teams

  • The
    British and Irish Lions
    .
  • Established in 1950,
    British Lions; perhaps the only example of representative (as opposed to invitational) multinational teams playing against each other. They also played against the Barbarians
    .
  • A similar development in 2004 has been the Pacific Islanders team.
  • The South American Jaguars were a combination team who played South Africa during the early 1980s.
  • The African Leopards are a development side drawn from across Africa, they have played representative rugby union against South African students.
  • The
    Arab countries in the Persian Gulf
    and competed in World Cup qualification. The Arabian Gulf Rugby Union has now been dismantled and responsibility for the game devolved to each of the member nations, although the team may be revived in the future.
  • There was also a West Indies side, which first toured when the Caribbean Rugby Union sent a team (managed by Gavin Clark) to tour England in 1976. Their last tour was also to England in October and November 2000.
  • The
    Commonwealth of Independent States
    played during the early 1990s.

Defunct national sides

Various national sides have ceased to exist for political reasons. In the case of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, there is more than one successor team. In the case of Catalonia, the Spanish Civil War and Franco's crackdown put an end to it, and in the case of East and West Germany, reunification led to their amalgamation into a single German side.

* For more information on these teams see above.

Women's rugby

Defunct women's national sides

Invitation sides

Notes and references

  1. ^ "IRB announces increased funding for the game" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 25 January 2008. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rugby Americas North Member
  3. ^ a b c d e f Sudamérica Rugby Member