 | |||
| Nickname | Atlas Lions | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Union | Royal Moroccan Rugby Federation | ||
| Head coach | Pierre Chadebech | ||
| Captain | Houssine Arabat | ||
| |||
| World Rugby ranking | |||
| Current | 40[1] (as of 21 July 2025) | ||
| First international | |||
 Morocco 6–14Spain (25 December 1931) | |||
| Biggest win | |||
Morocco 77–3Niger (23 June 2013) | |||
| Biggest defeat | |||
Morocco 0–89Romania (17 November 1976) | |||
TheMorocco national rugby union team are a national sporting side, representingMorocco inrugby union. The team is also known as the Atlas Lions. Morocco is governed by theFédération Royale Marocaine de Rugby. Morocco competes in theAfrica Cup annually. The team has won the competition in 2003 and 2005. They usually play their internationals inCasablanca.
Morocco has thus far not qualified for aRugby World Cup, but have participated in the qualifying tournaments since the early 1990s. For the2007 Rugby World Cup tournament in France, Morocco failed to qualify when they lost toPortugal, home and away meaning they would not make the Repechage 1 play-off againstUruguay.
Their best ranking was 20th in the world (on 5 July 2004)[2]
Morocco played their first international match on 25 December 1931 inRabat, whichSpain won 14–6. 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 inMadrid, losing 8–14. The two teams met again that December, Spain winning 14–0. After playing four internationals, no official matches would be played by Morocco until 1967.[citation needed]
Making their return to the international rugby stage, Morocco faced off against their old opponents of the 1930s – Spain, losing 3–0. Morocco then won their first match, at home inCasablanca, where they defeated Spain by one point. In late 1970, they were beaten by a non-cap French XV in Casablanca. The following year Morocco defeatedItaly inNaples, and lost 25–0 toRomania at home, and in 1972, were defeated 73–6 by a non-cap French XV. In 1975 inBrussels they defeatedBelgium. Morocco they found wins against teams like Italy andWest Germany, and lost games to touring French sides, as well as teams like Romania. Morocco played a French XV in 1983 in Casablanca, losing 9–16.[citation needed]
Morocco entered the1991 Rugby World Cup qualifyings, in a three games pool, in 1990, losing toZimbabwe by 0–16, and toTunisia by 12–16, finally winning their last fixture toCôte d'Ivoire by 11–4.Their qualifying competitions for the 1995 Rugby World Cup started in group 2 Africas, winning their first game over Tunisia by 6–5, in October 1993. They lost their second game toCôte d'Ivoire but did go through to round 2, where they lost to Côte d'Ivoire again, as well as Zimbabwe, and drew withNamibia.[citation needed]
Morocco were a part of Round 4 for the1999 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. In 2000, Morocco were included in the inauguralEuropean Nations Cup for Tier 2 rugby nations . They performed well and the highlight was when they defeated Romania 18–10 in Casablanca. In the same season, Morocco also played an under-23Springboks side. In qualifying tournaments for the2003 world cup, Morocco played in the six nation split third round, losing to Tunisia by one point and defeating Côte d'Ivoire. In February 2003, Morocco defeated France Amateurs 32–22 in Rabat.[citation needed]
Morocco's bid to qualify for the2007 world cup in France kicked off in June 2006 in pool 2 of round 2 of theAfricas qualifying tournament. They defeatedUganda 36–3 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. Morocco advanced to the Repechage Round as Africa 2, to play Europe 4 –Portugal, who won the home and away series.[citation needed]
Morocco failed surprisingly the early stage of the2011 Rugby World Cup qualifyings, after a 9–21 loss at home toCôte d'Ivoire.[citation needed]
After failing to field a team in the2011 Africa Cup Division 1A, Morocco, along withNamibia were relegated to Division 1B for 2012. After losses toMadagascar andSenegal, Morocco were relegated to the Division 1C tournament for the2013 Africa Cup, and as such, were eliminated from the2015 Rugby World Cup.[3]
| World Cup record | World Cup Qualification record | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | P | W | D | L | F | A | P | W | D | L | F | A | |
  1987 | Not invited | - | ||||||||||||
   1991 | did not qualify | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 23 | 36 | |||||||
 1995 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 51 | 76 | ||||||||
 1999 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 65 | 53 | ||||||||
| 2003 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 49 | 48 | ||||||||
| 2007 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 108 | 100 | ||||||||
| 2011 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 38 | 39 | ||||||||
 2015 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 53 | 61 | ||||||||
 2019 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 83 | 161 | ||||||||
| 2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| Total | 0/10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 11 | 3 | 17 | 470 | 574 | |
Second level
Champions:2017Third level
Third: 1979, 1983Champions: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2024Rugby Europe International Championships
Third: 1971, 1972, 2000
