Andorra national rugby union team

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Andorra
Union Federació Andorrana de Rugby
Nickname(s) Els Isards
Coach Jordi Beal
Captain Lionel Prat
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
 
Team colours
First international
Andorra 24 -3 Luxembourg
(1987-07-01)
Largest win
Andorra 76 - 3 Norway
(2004-09-04)
Worst defeat
Andorra 3 - 62 Spain
(1997-11-08)

The Andorra national rugby union team, nicknamed Els Isards (which is in Pyreneen Chamois) represent Andorra in international rugby union competitions. In March 2006 they were ranked 58th out of 95 Rugby playing nations by the International Rugby Board (IRB). They play most of their home games in Andorra la Vella, the country's capital, though have had some matches in Foix, which is in France.

They compete in the European Nations Cup, and are currently in the third division. In the qualification process for the 2007 Rugby World Cup they are currently playing in round 3, having already knocked out countries such as Norway, Slovenia and Sweden, despite having a population of just 70 000.

Contents

[edit] History

Andorra played their first rugby international in 1987 against Luxembourg. Andorra won the match 24 points to three. Andorra first tried to qualify for the Rugby World Cup for the 1995 tournament. They competed in the preliminary round in the west group of the European qualification. They defeated Denmark, but lost to Switzerland, and were knocked out of contention.

Andorra also attempted to qualify for the 1999 Rugby World Cup. Andorra started off in Pool 3 of Round 1, and won all four of their fixtures, finishing at the top of the final standings to advance through to Round 2. However they were then knocked out of qualifying after Round 2. They competed in Pool B of Round 1 in attempting to qualify for the 2003 World Cup, but did not advance to the next stage.

[edit] World Cup record

  • 1987 - No qualification tournament held
  • 1991 - Did not enter
  • 1995 - 2007 - Did not qualify

[edit] See also

[edit] External link

In other languages