Netherlands national rugby union team

Netherlands

Nickname(s)	Oranje (The Oranges)
Union	Dutch Rugby Union
Head coach	Lyn Jones
Captain	Dirk Danen
Most caps	Marc Visser (67)
Home stadium	NRCA Stadium
First colours Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current	27 (as of 5 February 2024)
Highest	23 (2018)
Lowest	48 (2008)
First international
Netherlands 0–6 Belgium  (Amsterdam, Netherlands; 1 July 1930)
Biggest win
Netherlands 62–0 Denmark  (Hilversum, Netherlands; 6 October 1973)
Biggest defeat
England 110–0 Netherlands  (Huddersfield, England; 14 November 1998)
Website	www.rugby.nl

The Netherlands national rugby union team (Dutch: Nederlands nationaal rugby team) represents Netherlands in men's international rugby union competitions. Nicknamed The Oranges (Oranje), is considered one of the stronger tier 3 teams in European rugby and currently compete in the second division of the Rugby Europe International Championships in the Rugby Europe Trophy, a competition which is just below the Rugby Europe Championship where the top 6 countries in Europe (apart from the teams in the Six Nations) compete. They are yet to participate in any Rugby World Cup.

History

The Netherlands played their first ever game in 1930, against Belgium on 1 July. The Netherlands played Belgium and Germany as well as Romania. During the 1940s they played regularly against Belgium and Germany. The 1960s saw the side play West Germany regularly as well as other fixtures including matches against Poland, Sweden, Spain and Czechoslovakia. The 1970s saw fixtures played against many teams, notably Scotland XV in October 1978 & Italy.

Record

Men's World Rugby Rankings v t e Top 30 as of 18 March 2024[1]
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		South Africa	094.54
2		Ireland	090.69
3		New Zealand	089.80
4		France	087.92
5		England	085.75
6		Scotland	082.82
7		Argentina	080.68
8	1	Italy	079.41
9	1	Australia	077.48
10	2	Wales	077.26
11		Fiji	076.38
12		Japan	074.27
13		Georgia	074.02
14		Samoa	072.23
15	1	Tonga	071.57
16	1	Portugal	070.28
17		United States	067.94
18		Uruguay	067.39
19		Spain	064.37
20		Romania	061.66
21		Canada	060.90
22		Namibia	060.56
23		Chile	060.49
24		Hong Kong	059.80
25		Russia	058.06
26		Switzerland	057.44
27		Netherlands	057.29
28	1	Belgium	055.89
29	1	Brazil	055.37
30	1	Korea	053.46
* Change from the previous week
Netherlands's historical rankings
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. See or edit source data.
Source: World Rugby[1] Graph updated to 4 March 2024

Below is a table of the representative rugby matches played by a Netherlands national XV at test level up until 17 March 2024.

Opponents	Matches	Won	Draw	Lost	For	Aga	Diff	Win%
Andorra	3	3	0	0	140	116	+24	100%
Belgium	45	20	4	21	475	539	–64	44.44%
Bulgaria	1	1	0	0	45	10	+35	100%
Croatia	2	2	0	0	47	19	+28	100%
Czech Republic	5	3	0	2	136	91	+45	60%
Czechoslovakia	7	2	0	5	88	99	–11	28.57%
Denmark	10	9	0	1	311	57	+254	90%
East Germany	2	1	0	1	20	35	–15	50%
Georgia	8	1	0	7	107	355	–248	12.5%
Germany	18	10	0	8	342	290	+52	55.56%
Hong Kong	2	1	1	0	25	10	+15	50%
England	1	0	0	1	0	110	–110	0%
Israel	1	1	0	0	56	0	+56	100%
Italy	4	0	0	4	27	178	–151	0%
Emerging Italy	1	0	0	1	5	50	-45	0%
Japan	1	1	0	0	15	13	+2	100%
Latvia	3	3	0	0	134	23	+11	100%
Lithuania	3	2	0	1	90	34	+56	66.67%
Malta	1	1	0	0	27	9	+18	100%
Morocco	7	3	0	4	88	111	–23	42.86%
Moldova	3	1	0	2	77	85	–8	33.33%
Poland	21	8	2	11	334	324	+10	38.1%
Portugal	14	1	3	10	172	349	–177	7.14%
Romania	10	0	1	9	76	393	–317	0%
Russia	5	0	0	5	47	243	–169	0%
Serbia and Montenegro	6	4	0	2	93	40	+53	66.67%
Spain	18	0	1	17	152	537	–385	0%
South Korea	2	1	0	1	45	108	–63	50%
Sweden	19	18	0	1	444	186	+258	94.74%
Switzerland	2	2	0	0	47	22	+25	100%
Tunisia	5	4	0	1	86	53	+33	80%
Ukraine	4	1	0	3	71	88	–17	25%
Uganda	1	1	0	0	42	0	+42	100%
West Germany	28	9	1	18	279	481	–202	32.14%
Zimbabwe	1	0	0	1	7	30	–23	0%
Total	262	114	13	135	4138	5008	–870	43.51%

Current squad

On 22 January 2022, the following 49 players were called up for the 2022 Rugby Europe Championship.^{[2] [3]}

Head Coach: Dick Muir (as of 2 June 2022)

• Caps Updated: 23 January 2021

Note: Flags indicate national union for the club/province as defined by World Rugby.

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Ross Bennie-Coulson	Hooker	(2000-10-18) 18 October 2000 (age 23)	16	DIOK *
Mark Darlington	Hooker	(1985-05-23) 23 May 1985 (age 38)	23	Maidenhead
Lars Linnenbank	Hooker	(1997-11-28) 28 November 1997 (age 26)	1	Dukes *
Mike Mbaud	Hooker	(1999-12-14) 14 December 1999 (age 24)	3	Ealing Trailfinders
David Anderson	Prop	(1995-08-04) 4 August 1995 (age 28)	1	Haagsche
Lodi Buijs	Prop	(2000-10-19) 19 October 2000 (age 23)	4	Haagsche *
Andrew Darlington	Prop	(1989-01-06) 6 January 1989 (age 35)	26	Beaune
Kieran Hogg	Prop	(1999-12-27) 27 December 1999 (age 24)	6	Unattached
Hugo Langelaan	Prop	(1990-03-27) 27 March 1990 (age 34)	31	Eemland *
Robin Moenen	Prop	(1995-11-28) 28 November 1995 (age 28)	12	DIOK *
Mink Scharink	Prop	(2000-07-12) 12 July 2000 (age 23)	0	Saracens
Jake Stamenković	Prop	(1999-10-03) 3 October 1999 (age 24)	4	DIOK
Koen Bloemen	Lock	(1998-05-13) 13 May 1998 (age 25)	7	Bourg-en-Bresse
Jim Boelrijk	Lock	(1994-02-06) 6 February 1994 (age 30)	10	‘t Gooi *
Louis Bruinsma	Lock	(2000-07-15) 15 July 2000 (age 23)	2	Stade Montois
Dennis van Dijken	Lock	(1999-08-25) 25 August 1999 (age 24)	1	Graulhet
Marijn Huis	Lock	(1999-11-28) 28 November 1999 (age 24)	3	Durham University
Christopher van Leeuwen	Lock	(1995-04-26) 26 April 1995 (age 28)	2	Suresnes
Jade Plane	Lock	(2001-02-18) 18 February 2001 (age 23)	0	Oyonnax
Dirk Danen	Back row	(1989-04-21) 21 April 1989 (age 35)	31	Hilversum *
Wolf van Dijk	Back row	(1999-12-02) 2 December 1999 (age 24)	10	DIOK
Guy van den Dries	Back row	(1993-09-28) 28 September 1993 (age 30)	1	Belsize Park
Dave Koelman	Back row	(2001-01-16) 16 January 2001 (age 23)	2	Castricum
Kevin Krieger	Back row	(1998-09-11) 11 September 1998 (age 25)	12	Haagsche
Blake Nightingale	Back row	(1992-05-02) 2 May 1992 (age 31)	10	‘t Gooi *
Christopher Raymond	Back row	(2000-12-16) 16 December 2000 (age 23)	2	Haarlem *
Liam Stone	Back row	(2000-10-01) 1 October 2000 (age 23)	0	Coventry
Niels van de Ven	Back row	(1992-04-20) 20 April 1992 (age 32)	5	Alcobendas
Maxou Zerdoun	Back row	(2000-10-13) 13 October 2000 (age 23)	1	Haagsche *
Mark Coebergh	Scrum-half	(1998-03-27) 27 March 1998 (age 26)	1	‘t Gooi *
Caleb Korteweg	Scrum-half	(1997-01-01) 1 January 1997 (age 27)	0	Stirling County
Hugo Schöller	Scrum-half	(1999-03-11) 11 March 1999 (age 25)	6	Coq Léguevinois
Jasey van Kampen	Fly-half	(1998-07-11) 11 July 1998 (age 25)	6	Haagsche
Marc Mistou	Fly-half	(1998-09-28) 28 September 1998 (age 25)	2	‘t Gooi *
Mees van Oord	Fly-half	(1999-04-27) 27 April 1999 (age 24)	9	DIOK *
Reinhardt Fortuin	Fly-half	(1996-01-30) 30 January 1996 (age 28)	2	Cheetahs
Willie du Plessis	Fly-half	(1990-06-05) 5 June 1990 (age 33)	0	Stade Montois
Storm Carroll	Centre	(1984-11-13) 13 November 1984 (age 39)	27	Haarlem
Jules Godfroy	Centre	(1997-01-14) 14 January 1997 (age 27)	0	Corrèze
Tyren Kroos	Centre	(2000-02-14) 14 February 2000 (age 24)	0	Agen
Daily Limmen	Centre	(2001-06-22) 22 June 2001 (age 22)	4	Castricum *
Oliva Sialau	Centre	(1994-03-01) 1 March 1994 (age 30)	3	Dukes *
David Weersma	Centre	(1996-04-09) 9 April 1996 (age 28)	15	Aparejadores
Daan van der Avoird	Wing	(2000-11-28) 28 November 2000 (age 23)	4	DIOK *
Jort Doornenbal	Wing	(2000-08-03) 3 August 2000 (age 23)	1	Castricum *
Jordy Hop	Wing	(1994-08-16) 16 August 1994 (age 29)	8	Haagsche
Reinier Pieters	Wing	(1996-11-28) 28 November 1996 (age 27)	3	Servette **
Bart Wierenga	Wing	(1999-08-26) 26 August 1999 (age 24)	4	Valence Romans
Te Hauora Campbell	Fullback	(2000-06-29) 29 June 2000 (age 23)	6	‘t Gooi *
Peter Lydon	Fullback	(1992-10-19) 19 October 1992 (age 31)	0	Rouen

• *: Also a member of
  Delta
  squad, playing in the Rugby Europe Super Cup.
• **: Servette is a Swiss club but plays in the French league.

Call-ups

On 10 February Spike Salman of Racing 92 was called up to the squad.^[4]

Current coaching staff

The current coaching staff of the Netherlands national team:^[5]

Name	Nationality	Role
Lyn Jones	WAL	Head coach
Gareth Gilbert	RSA	Assistant coach
Allard Jonkers	NED	Assistant coach
Emmanuel Peyrezabes	FRA	Strength and Conditioning coach
Antoine van den Berg	NED	Physiotherapist
Sebastiaan van Osch	NED	Physiotherapist
Kevan Gallagher	NED	Video analyst
Jan van Diest	NED	Manager

Past Coaches

Since 1997

Years	Coach
1997–2000	Geoff Old
2001–2004	Robbie Allen
2004	Alex O'Dowd
2005–2006	Iain Krysztofiak
2007	Eric Hangeveld
2008	Robin Raphael
2009	Hugues Dispas
2009	Robin Raphael (Caretaker)
2009–2010	Hugues Dispas
2010–2011	Jean Bidal
2011	Silvester Ramaker
2011–2016	Alex Chang
2016–2019	Gareth Gilbert
2019–2022	Zane Gardiner
2022	Dick Muir (interim)
2022–present	Lyn Jones

See also

• Rugby union in the Netherlands
• Dutch Rugby Union
• Netherlands women's national rugby union team
• Netherlands national under-20 rugby union team
• Netherlands national rugby sevens team
• Netherlands women's national rugby sevens team
• Sport in Netherlands

References

External links

• Dutch Rugby Union - Official Site (in Dutch)