Last countries without rugby

[ragbicoach Profile]

And what about Macedonia?

There is a "club" on Facebook - Skopje Griffins Rugby Club and the pictures show about half a dozen guys doing some training. I can't find anything else but will be in Skopje next month and will find out more then

[YamahaKiwi Profile]

Again two surprises there

Antigua and Grenada.. Two British commonwealth nations, Must have been some form of the game played

I went to Antigua in 2014 and I saw no sign of the game there at all. Infact though I saw a bit of beach cricket there even that isn't the national sport unlike other British Commonwealth Caribbean countries. Apparently it's yachting. And I'm sure like everywhere football is popular.

[mcruic Profile]

US Virgin Islands played their first (and currently only) test in 2013 against the British Virgin Islands (according to Scrum). The Privateers play what looks like an annual game against BVI, but some may not be classified as test matches.

I don't know about any others on your list who have played.

USVI played their 2nd test on 23rd April this year (also against BVI).

[Ser Podrick of Payne Profile]

Again two surprises there

Antigua and Grenada.. Two British commonwealth nations, Must have been some form of the game played

I went to Antigua in 2014 and I saw no sign of the game there at all. Infact though I saw a bit of beach cricket there even that isn't the national sport unlike other British Commonwealth Caribbean countries. Apparently it's yachting. And I'm sure like everywhere football is popular.

A small article about the "introduction of rugby" into Antigua and Barbuda from 2015: http://antiguaobserver.com/noc-to-introduce-rugby/

It confirms no rugby there to last year, whether or not there was any progress since is unknown.

[grande Profile]

I could probably put this in a better thread, but it's been announced that Guatemala & Slovakia are now WR members. http://www.worldrugby.org/news/159129

[Canalina Profile]

In the article World Rugby talks about 121 members (103 full and 18 associated), then in the subsequent paragraph gives info of the expulsion of Cambodia; so I haven't understood if that total of 121 takes count of Cambodia or not

The 103 full members are the 102 of the world ranking + Rwanda (when it will be admitted in the rankings? If they wait that Rwanda play ten test matches against ranked nations they wait a long time)

The associated members should be these 16, according to a rapid check (using http://www.worldrugby.org/member-unions)
Azerbaijan
British Virgin Islands
Brunei
Burundi
Cyprus
Ghana
Guatemala
Iran
Kyrgystan
Laos
Mali
Mongolia
Slovakia
St. Lucia
Tanzania
Togo

103+16=119, while according to World Rugby the members are now 121 or 120
Someone wants to find which is/are the missing name/s? It's not important of course

[Coloradoan Profile]

Again two surprises there

Antigua and Grenada.. Two British commonwealth nations, Must have been some form of the game played

I went to Antigua in 2014 and I saw no sign of the game there at all. Infact though I saw a bit of beach cricket there even that isn't the national sport unlike other British Commonwealth Caribbean countries. Apparently it's yachting. And I'm sure like everywhere football is popular.[/quote

Did you go to both Antigua and Anguilla in 2014? I know sailing is the national sport of Anguilla...

[YamahaKiwi Profile]

Again two surprises there

Antigua and Grenada.. Two British commonwealth nations, Must have been some form of the game played

I went to Antigua in 2014 and I saw no sign of the game there at all. Infact though I saw a bit of beach cricket there even that isn't the national sport unlike other British Commonwealth Caribbean countries. Apparently it's yachting. And I'm sure like everywhere football is popular.[/quote

Did you go to both Antigua and Anguilla in 2014? I know sailing is the national sport of Anguilla...

Oh dear I am losing my marbles! Yeah I meant Anguilla!

[argie Profile]

I could probably put this in a better thread, but it's been announced that Guatemala & Slovakia are now WR members. http://www.worldrugby.org/news/159129

The Guatemala's national team is named Los Jaguares.

Suriname is inactive (at least the female rugby). http://www.americasrugbynews.com/2016/0 ... rugby-map/

[Hansgrohe Profile]

My research showed no Suriname test matches I could find. It shows that in many parts of the world it's quite literally a few friends calling themselves a "union" and "organizing" a national side. It's much different from 20 or even 10 years ago but shows how long we've come, and how much longer we have to go.

[victorsra Profile Website]

My research showed no Suriname test matches I could find. It shows that in many parts of the world it's quite literally a few friends calling themselves a "union" and "organizing" a national side. It's much different from 20 or even 10 years ago but shows how long we've come, and how much longer we have to go.

Yes, and usually these friends are expats from countries where rugby is strong. There isn't competitive rugby in most of the countries we find one or two clubs... (in fact I ask myself even if some WR member really have a active rugby scene with more than sparse matches, but ok...)

A Suriname men's team played once a sevens tournament in Guyana. But I couldn't find anything else. Maybe they are still playing against Guyana and French Guyana clubs, but it is REALLY hard to find infomation about Guyana's domestic rugby. I never knew anything about a women's team in Suriname.

There is a "club" on Facebook - Skopje Griffins Rugby Club and the pictures show about half a dozen guys doing some training. I can't find anything else but will be in Skopje next month and will find out more then

Yeah, I found that Griffons too and nothing else. I thought they had a couple of other sides...

The associated members should be these 16, according to a rapid check (using http://www.worldrugby.org/member-unions)
Azerbaijan
British Virgin Islands
Brunei
Burundi
Cyprus
Ghana
Guatemala
Iran
Kyrgystan
Laos
Mali
Mongolia
Slovakia
St. Lucia
Tanzania
Togo

103+16=119, while according to World Rugby the members are now 121 or 120
Someone wants to find which is/are the missing name/s? It's not important of course

Costa Rica is an associated member afaik

And isn't Nauru now an associated member too?

[Coloradoan Profile]

Again two surprises there

Antigua and Grenada.. Two British commonwealth nations, Must have been some form of the game played

I went to Antigua in 2014 and I saw no sign of the game there at all. Infact though I saw a bit of beach cricket there even that isn't the national sport unlike other British Commonwealth Caribbean countries. Apparently it's yachting. And I'm sure like everywhere football is popular.[/quote

Did you go to both Antigua and Anguilla in 2014? I know sailing is the national sport of Anguilla...

Oh dear I am losing my marbles! Yeah I meant Anguilla!

Heh, thought so but didn't want to make assumptions. Anguilla used to have a team called the Eels that got together for 7s and beach tournaments, but I don't think they've been active for a few years. St Maarten seems like a good place for a beach tournament.

[Canalina Profile]

Costa Rica is an associated member afaik

And isn't Nauru now an associated member too?

Costa Rica! Thanks
I don't think Nauru is a WR member, probably they are just Oceania Rugby new members. They are just 10,000 inhabitants and they have a 7s national championship in six legs, plus at least two XV teams and a regular activity at U18, U15 and kid level. Kudos… https://www.facebook.com/NauruRugby

It's a bit a mystery the status of Mauritania. Are they still suspended? Re-admitted like Cameroon? Or expelled like Armenia and Cambodia?

[nick511 Profile]

Nauru's facebook page says they became an associate member of FORU in May 2014 which I think is still their current status. I have seen an article that seems to have misunderstood the difference between associate membership of World Rugby and Oceania Rugby. And it has to be a full member of the regional body for two years anyway to have a chance of associate WR membership.

[stuartdm Profile]

I used to know someone who said he'd played for "Antigua" about 15-20 years ago, I think he was born there. I assume it wasn't an organised match.

[nick511 Profile]

I emailed Rugby Africa in regards to the status of the Mauritania Rugby Union this was their response;
"The Mauritanian Rugby Union is unfortunately, still suspended today."
Although their website shows signs of regular activity right up to this year and even a few articles on tournys but obviously they arn't in a hurry to meet WR's criteria or can't.

[Canalina Profile]

There are at least two clubs in Tirana (they played each other few days ago https://www.facebook.com/kriliret/), at least two clubs in Montenegro, at least one in Kosovo, one in Macedonia… I think there's room for a transnational championship between Albania's, Montenegro's, Macedonia's and Kosovo's clubs. A sort of B level of the Regional Rugby Championship involving Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Hungary…
All those nations (Albania, Macedonia etc) have not quite clubs to form a national championship, but together they could organize a regular competition, and the distances between the clubs' cities are relatively short

[Canalina Profile]

Malawi vs. Lesotho
in Malawi on 29 August 2016

It would be the first test match ever for Malawi, let's see if it will be actually played

This is the list (I hope correct) of the nations that still haven't played test matches. Since the beginning of the year we have already erased one nation from it: Saudi Arabia

ASIA: Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nepal, North Korea, Yemen, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine, Bahrain, Bhutan, East Timor, Maldives.
AFRICA: Ethiopia, Sudan, Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, Guinea, South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Central Africa, Cape Verde, Comoros, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Seychelles, São Tomé and Príncipe.
NORTH AMERICA: Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Antigua & Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Saint Kitts & Nevis.
SOUTH AMERICA: Bolivia, Suriname.
EUROPE: Albania, Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Vaticano.
OCEANIA: Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Northern Mariana, Palau, Tuvalu.

[stuartdm Profile]

Could Kosovo be added to that list? They've just been accepted by FIFA.

[Hansgrohe Profile]

Technically Malawi played matches as Nyasaland and even in the 80s they had test matches as independent Malawi.

[ARHS Profile]

No guarantees any of these are official test matches, but matches were played:

July 1999 British Virgin Islands 18 Cuba 3 in Havana.
26 March 2008 Syria 33 Lebanon 7
8 Sept 2012 Albania 34 San Marino 7 in Chesia

[Canalina Profile]

The Albania's success was against San Marino's club, not against the San Marino's national team (that never played a XV match). I remember clearly that. The Albania's team itself was composed entirely by players based in Italy and in absence of an albanian federation so I'm not sure we can consider it a full, proper national team. The match was hosted in Chiesanuova (it means "new church"), one of the San Marino's quarters

The syrian match was played by the Damascus Zenobians, according to the Zenobians themselves http://www.zenobians.net/news.html
Anyway the lebanese federation describes that match has played against the syrian national team. It was part of the Mashreq League, involving also a Jordan team (maybe the national one)

I don't know instead about the Cuba's match you mention

[victorsra Profile Website]

But some of these countries have played official sevens tournaments organized by the continental unions or in multisports events:

ASIA: Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Syria... not sure about Bahrein, Kuwait and Oman... I believe they played Dubai or HK 7s...
EUROPE: Iceland, Liechtenstein, San Marino
OCEANIA: Nauru, Tuvalu

Probably Bolivia is close to take part in some tournament, because they will host the 2018 South American Games, that will include sevens.

[victorsra Profile Website]

Nicaragua accepted as new Sudamérica Rugby member http://www.sudamericarugby.org/2016/07/ ... ica-rugby/

[sammo Profile]

When I was in East Timor last year there were a few expats who would play informally occasionally, but certainly no domestic club structure