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| Rugby union in Ireland | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Governing body | Irish Rugby Football Union |
| National team | Ireland |
| First played | 1869,Dublin |
| Registered players | 90,209[1] |
| Clubs | 56 clubs affiliated to theUlster Branch 71 clubs affiliated to theLeinster Branch 59 clubs affiliated to theMunster Branch 23 clubs affiliated to theConnacht Branch. |
| National competitions | |
| Club competitions | |
Rugby union is a popular team sport on the island ofIreland, organised on anall-Ireland basis, including players and teams from both theRepublic of Ireland andNorthern Ireland. Its governing body, theIrish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), was founded in 1875,[2] making it the third oldest rugby union in the world after theRFU (England) and theSRU (Scotland), which were both founded in 1871.
TheIreland national team is currently second in theWorld Rugby Rankings (as of October 2025),[3] and has won theSix Nations Championship (and its predecessor competitions) fifteen times, most recently in2024, including fourGrand Slams, the most recent being in2023.[4] Ireland has appeared at every men's Rugby World Cup but never advanced beyond the quarter-final.
Ireland has four professional teams, organised by the four provincial unions that make up the IRFU,Leinster,Munster,Ulster andConnacht, who compete in theUnited Rugby Championship (URC), theEuropean Rugby Champions Cup and theEPCR Challenge Cup. Leinster are the most recent Irish team to win the URC in2024–25, and are the most successful side historically. Irish provinces have had considerable success in European competitions, with seven European Rugby Champions Cups (4 Leinster, 2 Munster and 1 Ulster) and one Challenge Cup win (Leinster).
At the local level, fifty club sides compete in the five divisions of theAll-Ireland League, of whichCork Constitution are the current champions.
TheIreland women's rugby union team compete in theWomen's Six Nations,WXV and thewomen's Rugby World Cup, while women's teams from Ireland compete in theIRFU Women's Interprovincial Series and the cross-borderCeltic Challenge competition with sides from Scotland and Wales.[5]
The Irish Rugby Football union was formed in 1879, after the merger of theIrish Football Union, which controlled rugby inLeinster,Munster and parts ofUlster, and the Northern Football Union of Ireland, which controlled in the game in theBelfast area.[6] As part of this amalgamation, the IRFU established three provincial branches to run the game in Leinster, Munster and Ulster;[7] a fourth branch was founded forConnacht in 1885.[8] The IRFU was a founding member of theInternational Rugby Board (now calledWorld Rugby) in 1986. Despite thepartition of Ireland in 1921, the IRFU continues to run the game on an all-island basis.
The Ireland national team represents the whole Island of Ireland, selecting players from both theRepublic of Ireland andNorthern Ireland. Its first international match was a 7-0 defeat byEngland in 1875.[9]
Since 1995 the Ireland national team has been fully professional.[10] They play their home games at theAviva Stadium in Dublin. They compete in the annualSix Nations Championship, the four-yearlyRugby World Cup, and variousmid-year andautumn international matches.
The national team has won severalTriple Crowns and threeGrand Slams and is able to play at a competitive level with the world's rugby giants, having beaten all includingNew Zealand in the last five years.[11]
As with all top-tier rugby nations, and many lower-tier countries, Ireland field an "A" national side, a second-level national selection primarily intended to develop younger talent for possible future duty on the senior national team. Since February 2010, the IRFU have rebranded the A side asIreland Wolfhounds. The Wolfhounds generally play "A" teams of the other major European powers and senior sides of lower-tier nations. Ireland also field an occasional development team,Emerging Ireland, used to try out promising young players. TheIreland national under-20 rugby union team competes in the annualSix Nations Under 20s Championship andWorld Rugby U20 Championship tournaments. TheIreland national schoolboy rugby union team competes in theRugby Europe Under-18 Championship.
IQ Rugby (formerly theIrish Exiles) is a development programme to identify potential Ireland players from theIrish diaspora.
TheIreland national rugby sevens team competes in theWorld Rugby Sevens Series, theRugby World Cup Sevens and at theSummer Olympics. Unlike the national team, sevens players are not selected from the provincial teams, although some go on to play for the provincial teams. Their highest ever finish in theSVNS is second2023–24 SVNS league. They have made the semifinals of the Rugby World Cup Sevens twice, once in1993 and in2022, coming in third place in the latter. Their highest finish at the Summer Olympics is 6th at the2024 Summer Olympics.
The Irish Women's Rugby Football Union (IWRFU) was founded in 1991, and theIreland women's national rugby union team made their international debut in 1993. The IWRFU became affiliated to the IRFU in 2001, and was incorporated into the IRFU in 2008. The Ireland women's team have competed in theWomen's Rugby World Cup since its second edition in1994, and theWomen's Six Nations Championship (and its predecessor competitions) since1996. Ireland hosted the2017 Women's Rugby World Cup, and lost toWales 17–27 in the eighth place play off.
The four branches of the IRFU each organise a provincial team:Leinster, based at theRDS Arena inDublin;Munster, based atThomond Park inLimerick;Ulster, based atRavenhill inBelfast; andConnacht, based at theSportsgrounds inGalway. In the amateur era, they were representative teams, selected from the best club players in the province, and competed in the annualIRFU Interprovincial Championship, as well as playing against international touring teams. After rugby union was declared open to professionalism in 1995, they were developed into professional teams.[12]
Today, they compete in theUnited Rugby Championship (URC) alongside teams from Scotland, Wales, Italy and South Africa,[13] and theEuropean Rugby Champions Cup andEPCR Challenge Cup, which also include teams from France and England.[14] All four provinces have been champions of the URC (or its predecessor competitions), Leinster nine times, most recently in 2025; Munster four times, most recently in 2023; Ulster once in 2006; and Connacht once in 2016. Leinster have won the Champions Cup four times, most recently in 2018; Munster twice, most recently in 2008; and Ulster once in 1999. Leinster have won the Challenge Cup once, in 2012.
To encourage the development of Irish talent, the provinces are allowed only three non-Irish-qualified players in their squads.[15] Each province has an academy programme to develop young players from local schools and clubs to professional level.[16] Regular internationals are signed on central contracts to the IRFU, meaning that they, and not the provinces, control when the players play and when they rest.[17]
Each province also has a women's team which competes in the annualIRFU Women's Interprovincial Series.[18] Irish women's teams compete in theCeltic Challenge tournament alongside teams from Scotland and Wales. In the first year, 2023, Ireland entered a Combined Provinces team. In the2024 tournament, they entered two teams, the Wolfhounds, a combined Ulster-Leinster team, and the Clovers, a combined Munster-Connacht team.[19]
Since 1990, the top club sides in Ireland have competed in theAll-Ireland League. It originally featured nineteen clubs in two divisions,[20] and currently has fifty clubs in five divisions, 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B and 2C, with promotion and relegation between them.[21] The bottom team in Division 2C is relegated to their province's Junior League. Playoffs are held between the winners of the four provincial Junior Leagues to decide who will replace them.[22] TheBateman Cup is played for annually by the winners of the provincial Senior Cups.[23] The Women's All-Ireland League was founded in 1992[24] has one division containing nine clubs.[25] The provincial branches each organise a pyramid of league and cup competitions for both men's and women's teams.[26][27][28][29]
Each province has a senior schools' tournament: theLeinster Schools Rugby Senior Cup; theMunster Schools Rugby Senior Cup; theUlster Schools' Cup; and theConnacht Schools Rugby Senior Cup; and an under-15 tournament: theLeinster Schools Junior Cup; theMunster Schools Junior Cup; the UlsterMedallion Shield; and theConnacht Schools Junior Cup.
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The last report on the number of players playing rugby union conducted by World Rugby in 2019 showed 79,000 registered players (i.e. those registered with clubs, including the 21,000 adult players) and an overall total of 196,000, incorporating women’ players, schools, sevens etc.[30]
The professional era and the advent of the competitions now known asUnited Rugby Championship and theEuropean Rugby Champions Cup have seenrugby union become a majorspectator sport in Ireland.European Cup games are generally well supported in all the provinces, with sellouts the norm and massive crowds in Dublin'sLansdowne Road for quarterfinal and semifinal matches. Ulster, Munster and Leinster have all won the Heineken Cup. In the pastUlster led the then-Celtic League attendances for 3 years in the row andConnacht,Munster andLeinster's crowds have grown year on year and with the later two setting new world records for province/club attendance.
Munster extensively renovated and expanded their traditional home ofThomond Park in a project that was completed in 2008. TheRoyal Dublin Society expanded theirRDS Arena in the same time period, which prompted Leinster to make it their primary home while they were planning to expand their own traditional ground atDonnybrook. After the Donnybrook plans fell through, Leinster chose to remain at the RDS and in 2023 Leinster embarked on renovation plans to increase the capacity of the arena.[31] Connacht completed ground expansion and renovation works in time for the 2011/2012 season with the construction of the Clan Terrace. And in 2014, Ulster completed the complete reconstruction of Ravenhill Stadium into a modern 18,000 capacity stadium. Munster are currently in the process of construing a new stand at their secondary home ofMusgrave Park.
Before the opening of Aviva Stadium,Ireland international games sold out against all but the weakest opposition, and with the team playing atCroke Park during the reconstruction of Lansdowne Road, attendances regularly topped 80,000. However, the Aviva saw disappointing attendance during its first Tests in 2010, with no match selling out; media reports indicated that this was largely due to an IRFU ticketing strategy that made little sense in anuncertain economy. More recent Tests have seen crowds much closer to capacity, including sellouts or near-sellouts for all of Ireland's Six Nations home fixtures.
Rugby clubs started to appear in Ireland in the mid-19th century.Dublin University Football Club was in existence by 1855, giving it a strong claim to being the world's oldest extant football club of any code.[32] Other early clubs still in existence includeWanderers (founded 1869),Queen's University (1869),Lansdowne (1873),Dungannon (1873) andUniversity College Cork (1874). Ballinasloe, founded in 1875, merged with Athlone in 1994 to formBuccaneers;[33]North of Ireland, founded in 1868, merged withCollegians in 1999 to formBelfast Harlequins.[34]
TheIrish Football Union was founded to govern the game in Leinster, Munster and parts of Ulster in December 1874. The Northern Football Union of Ireland was founded in January 1875, and controlled the game in the Belfast area The two unions amalgamated to form the IRFU in 1879,[35] but not before the first interprovincial match, betweenUlster andLeinster,[36] andIreland's first international match againstEngland, both in 1875.[37] Ireland played their home games atLansdowne Road in Dublin from 1878. The earliest competitions include theUlster Schools' Cup, first held in 1876,[38] and theDublin Hospitals Rugby Cup, first held in 1881.[39]
The Leinster Challenge Cup, later known as theLeinster Senior Cup, was first played in 1882, won by Dublin University.[40] Senior Cup competitions followed in the other provinces: theUlster Senior Cup was first won by North of Ireland in 1885;[41] theMunster Senior Cup was first won byBandon in 1886;[42] and theConnacht Senior Cup was first won by Galway Town in 1896.[43] Ulster was the first province to establish a provincial league, theUlster Senior League, first won byQueen's in 1891.[44] TheMunster Senior League followed, first won byGarryowen in 1903; theConnacht Senior League was first won byGalwegians in 1926; theLeinster Senior League was not founded until 1971, and was first won bySt. Mary's College in 1972. TheAll-Ireland League, featuring clubs from all four provinces, was founded in 1990, and was first won byCork Constitution.
TheIRFU Interprovincial Championship, between the provincial representative teams ofUlster,Leinster,Munster andConnacht, was first played in 1946, with Ulster being the first champions.
The Home Nations Championship, ancestor of today'sSix Nations Championship, was first played in 1883, between theIreland,England,Scotland andWales national teams.[45] It became the Five Nations Championship in 1910 with the addition ofFrance. Ireland first won the competition in 1926, jointly with Scotland. Their first outright win, and Grand Slam, came in 1948.
TheRugby World Cup was first held in1987; Ireland were knocked out byAustralia in the quarter-finals. In the1991 Rugby World Cup, they again went out to Australia in the quarter-finals. In the final World Cup of the amateur era in1995 they were knocked out in the quarter-finals once more, this time byFrance.
Ireland's most capped players of the amateur era include North of Ireland centreMike Gibson (69), Ballymena lockWillie John McBride (63), Blackrock flankerFergus Slattery (61), Dungannon lockPaddy Johns (59), and Old Wesley propPhilip Orr (58). Dublin University centreBrendan Mullin is Ireland's top try scorer of the amateur era with 17; Dolphin centreMichael Kiernan is top points scorer with 308.
On 26 August 1995, rugby union was declared open to professionalism by theInternational Rugby Board. The IRFU had been opposed to this, and rugby in Ireland was poorly prepared for professionalism. Amid fears that Irish players could be signed up by English clubs,[46] they began by offering contracts to international players.[47]
TheHeineken Cup, now known as theEuropean Rugby Champions Cup, was launched the same year.[48] Ireland was given three places, and rather than enter clubs, the IRFU entered three of the four provincial teams,Munster,Ulster andLeinster.[49] This led to the development of the provincial sides as professional teams, starting with match fees,[50] and later contracts for provincial players.[51]Ulster won the competition in 1999. Munster have won it twice, in2006 and2008, and Leinster four times, in2009,2011,2012 (defeating Ulster), and2018. In addition, Leinster won theEuropean Challenge Cup in2013 after having parachuted in from that season's Heineken Cup.
TheCeltic League, featuring all four Irish provinces alongside teams from Scotland and Wales, was launched in 2001.[52] TheIRFU Interprovincial Championship was discontinued. The League expanded to a 22-match schedule in 2003,[53] and for the first time the Irish provinces could operate as full-time professional teams, with players only rarely able to play for their clubs.[54] The competition was renamed thePro12 in 2011 with the addition of two teams from Italy; thePro14 in 2017 with the addition of two teams from South Africa; and theUnited Rugby Championship in 2021 with the incorporation of four South African teams. Irish provinces have won the competition fourteen times in 24 seasons, and all four provinces have won it at least once. Leinster won the league in2002,2008,2013,2014,2018,2018–19,2019–20 and2020–21; Munster won in2003,2009,2011 and2023; Ulster won it in2006; andConnacht won it in2016.[55]
The Five Nations became theSix Nations Championship in 2000 with the addition ofItaly. Ireland's first win of the professional era came with a Grand Slam in2009. They won it again in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2023 (the last two also being Grand Slams), and 2024. They went out in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in1999 (toArgentina);2003 (toFrance); at the group stage in2007; and in the quarter-finals in2011 (toWales),2015 (to Argentina), and2019 (toNew Zealand). After a victorioustour of New Zealand in 2022, Ireland went into the2023 Rugby World Cup as one of the favourites, but went out in the quarter-finals to eventual runners-upNew Zealand.
The oldLansdowne Road stadium was demolished in 2007, and the newAviva Stadium, built on the same site, opened in 2010. In the meantime, home internationals were played at theGaelic Athletic Association's stadium,Croke Park.
Ireland's most-capped players of the professional era include Leinster centreBrian O'Driscoll (133), Leinster propCian Healy (129), Munster out-halfRonan O'Gara (128), Ulster hookerRory Best (123) and Leinster out-halfJohnny Sexton (118). O'Driscoll is Ireland's record try scorer with 46; Sexton is their leading points scorer with 1108.
Although rugby has traditionally been associated with the more anglophile elements of Irish society, it has not been without its following in the nationalist and republican communities. For example, the longest servingtaoiseach,Éamon de Valera was a former player, and lifetime fan of the game. At the age of sixteen, De Valera won a scholarship toBlackrock College,County Dublin. It was atBlackrock College that de Valera began playing rugby. Later during his tenure atRockwell College, he joined the school's rugby team where he played fullback on the first team, which reached the final of the Munster Senior Cup. De Valera was a close friend of the Ryan brothers at Rockwell who played on Ireland's Triple Crown-winning team in 1899. De Valera remained a lifelong devotee of rugby, attending numerous international matches up to and towards the end of his life despite near blindness.
Other notable politicians, from very different backgrounds, who have played rugby for Ireland includeTyrone Howe (a formerUnionist Party councillor),Trevor Ringland (a Unionist Parliamentary candidate) andDick Spring (formerTánaiste and Labour Party TD).
Nowadays, rugby is played by bothnationalists and unionists. Historically, it tended to be popular with different social groups in different parts of Ireland, although generally speaking it is regarded as amiddle-class sport in Ireland and further afield. InLimerick city, it is enjoyed across the social spectrum, while inLeinster andCork City it remains very much amiddle-class game. Rugby traditionally is not as prevalent in Connacht, although it is less defined there by social class. InNorthern Ireland it is traditionally played in mainly-middle-classProtestantgrammar schools. The changing climate inNorthern Ireland politics has altered this perceived tradition with the introduction of rugby into an increasing number ofRoman Catholic grammar andsecondary schools which were previously exclusively associated withGaelic games.
During the late 19th century, in response to the perceived encroachment of English sports, including rugby, Irish nationalistMichael Cusack set up theGaelic Athletic Association (GAA).[56]Rule 42 of the GAA's Official Guide prohibited the playing of non-Gaelic games in GAA stadiums, including rugby until it was lifted in 2007.[57] However, the rule was relaxed whileLansdowne Road was being redeveloped, and rugby was played inCroke Park[58] including a match between Leinster and Munster that broke the club rugby attendancerecord; seeList of non-Gaelic games played in Croke Park for exceptions to this rule.
The first game to take place under the relaxed Rule 42 took place on 11 February 2007. It was aSix Nations Championship rugby match betweenIreland andFrance which Ireland lost 17–20.[59] The following match againstEngland generated some controversy, since it involved the playing ofGod Save the Queen at a ground where British soldiers had killed fourteen spectators onBloody Sunday, 1920.[60][61] There was a small protest byRepublican Sinn Féin outside the ground which included a man holding a sign sayingNo toforeign games while ironically wearing aCeltic FC tracksuit.[62][63][64]
AHeineken Cup semi-final was played in Croke Park on 2 May 2009, whenLeinster defeatedMunster 25–6. The attendance of 82,208 set a new world record attendance for a club rugby union game.[65] Leinster broke this record at Croke Park again in 2024, drawing a capacity 82,300 crowd for an Investec Champions Cup semi-final againstNorthampton Saints.
