Rugby union in Israel
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Rugby union is a minor sport in Israel, governed by the Israel Rugby Union. It was brought to the country by British soldiers during the Mandate era, but petered out after the British left. A wave of immigration from English speaking countries since 1967 has seen renewed interest in the sport, particularly in areas with large English-speaking populations such as Ra'anana and Jerusalem. Rugby union has also featured at the Maccabiah Games since 1981.
[edit] National team
The national team is in the third tier of international rugby. Their first match was away to Switzerland on 25 May, 1981, and ended 9-9. The Union joined the International Rugby Board in 1988, and participated in the European section of the qualifying rounds for the 1991 Rugby World Cup. In a group with Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, Israel lost all three matches, but were by no means humiliated.
In the qualifying matches for the 1995 World Cup, Israel thrashed Hungary 67-8 in the preliminary round, before being knocked out in the Round 1 group stage, failing to score a point in two of their three games.
The qualifying matches for the 1999 Rugby World Cup followed the established pattern, with Israel being knocked out in the group stage, though they avoided finishing bottom of their five-team group by beating Austria. The same happened in the 2003 WC qualifiers, where they finished fourth in a six team group. In the 2007 WC qualifiers they did not even make it to the group stage, being thrashed 113-7 on aggregate by Lithuania. In April 2007, they were ranked 93rd out of 95 IRB member nations. [1]
Israel has also entered the Rugby World Cup Sevens
[edit] Domestic rugby
The first league was set up in 1972 with five clubs, and was played over the 1972/3 season. Intitially the league was run by the players themselves, but in a general meeting in 1975, it was decided to set up a committee to run the game.
Since then the league has fluctuated between six and ten teams, with six members at the start of the 2006/7 season:
- ASA Tel Aviv
- Ashkelon
- Haifa Technion
- Jerusalem Lions
- Ra'anana Roosters (formerly Netanya Roosters)
- Yizrael
There are just four women's teams;
- Haifa Technion
- Ra'anana Roosters
- Tel Aviv
- Jerusalem
Former clubs include:
- Be'er Sheva Camels (Cup winners 2004/5)
- Galil HaElyon
[edit] External links
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