Morocco national rugby union team

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Morocco

Union

Fédération Royale Marocaine de Rugby

Nickname(s)

Atlas Lions

Coach

Claude Saurel

Captain

Djalil Narjissi





Team colours





Change colours

First international

Spain 14 - 6 Morocco
(25 December 1931)

Largest win

Namibia 0 - 49 Morocco
(5 November 2005)

Worst defeat

Romania 89 - 0 Morocco
(17 November 1976)

The Morocco national rugby union team are a national sporting side, representing Morocco in rugby union. The team is also known as the Atlas Lions. Morocco is governed by the Fédération Royale Marocaine de Rugby. Morocco competes in the Africa Cup annually. The team has won the competition in 2003 and 2004. They usually play their internationals in Casablanca.

Morocco has thus far not qualified for a Rugby World Cup, but have participated in the qualifying tournaments since the early 1990s. For the 2007 world cup tournament in France Morocco failed to qualify when they lost to Portugal, home and away meaning they would not make the Repechage 1 play-off against Uruguay.

1 History
2 Current squad
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Morocco played their first international match on December 25, 1931 in Rabat, where they went down to Spain 6 to 14. Another match was held three days later, and Morocco managed to hold Spain to a 10-all draw. Morocco met Spain again in April of the next year, though this time in Madrid, losing 8 to 14. The two teams met again that December, Spain winning 14 nil. After playing four internationals, no official matches would be played by Morocco until 1967.

Making their return to the international rugby stage, Morocco faced off against their old opponents of the 1930s - Spain, losing 3 nil. Morocco then won their first match, at home in Casablanca, where the defeated Spain by one point. Morocco would not lose another match until late 1970, when they were beaten by a non-cap French XV in Casablanca. The following year Morocco defeated Italy in Naples, but also lost 25 to nil to Romania at home, and in 1972, were defeated 73 to 6 by a non-cap French XV. Morocco went through an unsuccessful period after this, losing heavily to a number of teams, and found their next win in 1975 in Brussels, defeating Belgium.

The rest of the decade brought about mixed results for Morocco, whilst they found wins against teams like Italy and West Germany, they were still losing heavily to touring French sides, as well as teams like Romania. The 1980s saw Morocco compete a lot better with nations they had traditionally struggled with, in particular the French XVs. Morocco coming fairly close in 1983 in Casablanca, losing 9 to 16. Performances against Romania had also improved. The latter parts of the decade saw mixed results against their traditional opponents.

The 1990s began with a 12-all draw with Tunisia. Matches were played against a number of other African nations, including eventual 1991 World Cup participants Zimbabwe, which Morocco lost 16 to nil. This was followed by some solid performances, though Morocco lost by in excess of 60 points to a French XV and Italy prior to qualifying tournaments for the 1995 World Cup in South Africa. Their qualifying campaign started in group 2 Africas, winning their first game over Tunisia 6 to 5 in October of 1993. They lost their second game to Côte d'Ivoire, but did go through to round 2, where they lost to Cote d'Ivoire again, as well as Zimbabwe, and drew with Namibia, but did not qualify for the world cup.

Morocco were a part of Round 4 for the 1999 Rugby World Cup qualifying for Africas, again playing Namibia, Zimbabwe and Côte d'Ivoire. Morocco finished second in the round, behind Namibia, and went through to a repechage round. Uruguay won a home and away series to get through the repechage. Their first match of 2000 saw them defeat Romania 18 to 10 in Casablanca, along with a number of other matches that season, Morocco also played an under-23 Springboks side. In qualifing tournaments for the 2003 world cup, Morocco played in the six nation split third round, losing to Tunisia by one point and defeating Côte d'Ivoire, but did not qualify. In February of 2003 Morocco defeated France Amateurs 32 to 22 in Rabat.

Morocco's bid to qualify for the 2007 world cup in France kicked off in June 2006 in pool 2 of round 2 of the Africas qualifying tournament. They defeated Uganda 36 to 3 in their first match, and then drew Côte d'Ivoire 9-9. They then lost 25-7 in Windhoek and 8-27 in Casablanca to Namibia, who advanced to the World Cup. Morocco advanced to the Repechage Round as Africa 2, to play Europe 4 - Portugal, but lost home and away meaning they would not meet Uruguay in the Repechage 1 play-off.