About Irish Rugby

Rugby is an international sport. It is played by nearly every nation in the world. The Rugby World Cup is played every four years. The 2011 Rugby World Cup will be played in New Zealand.
Ireland is currently the Six Nations Champion. The Six Nations Championship is played every year between, Ireland, England, France, Scotland, Italy and Wales.
Ireland is a relative newcomer to the world of rugby. The roots of Irish rugby can be traced to England.

Introduction of Rugby to Ireland

Students who attended the English Public schools introduced Rugby to Ireland. These students brought the game with them to Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and they founded the first rugby club in 1854.
Trinity played their first matches against St. Columbia College and Hume High Street in 1867.
Rugby started to grow in popularity in Ireland, particularly in the Dublin region and by 1868, several clubs began playing the game.

Growth of Rugby

Rugby started to grow in the Dublin and Belfast areas.
Wanders was the second rugby club to be formed. Wanders was founded in 1869.
Lansdowne was organized in 1873. Other rugby clubs were soon created. They were Dungannon in1873, Co. Carlow in 1873, UCC in1874, Ballinasloe in1875, NIFC in 1868, and Queens University in 1869. All of these original clubs are still in existence today.
With the establishment of Queens University rugby club in Belfast, the formation of other rugby clubs in Belfast quickly followed suit. In rapid succession Windsor, Ulster, Belmont, Lisburn and Albion began playing rugby.
Rugby was dominant in Northern Ireland. Most of the participants were Protestants. The Catholic sections of Northern Ireland did not participate in the sport until the mid-1900s.

The Formation Of The Irish Football Union

The popularity of the Rugby in Protestant circles resulted in the formation of two separate rugby unions in Dublin and Belfast.
Dublin formed the Irish Football Union on December 12th, 1874. Belfast joined in and formed the Northern Football union a few months later.
These unions were at odds with each other. In February 1879, the two competing unions worked out their differences were combined into one union. The new union was called the Irish Rugby Football Union.
The creation of the IRFU led to the formation of branches in the following cities: Leinster, Munster and Ulster in 1885.
Twenty-six clubs were divided up and assigned: 10 clubs were assigned to Ulster; Leinster received nine clubs; and seven went to Munster.
A new branch formed in 1886 was called The Connacth Branch.

Ireland Tests International Competition

After the formation of the rugby union in Ireland, the Irish took on England in their first test match on February 15th, 1875. The Irish club lost to England 7-0.
On March 11th, 1878, the return match was played and Ireland lost again to the English side.
Ireland won its first international match when they defeated Scotland at home in Belfast in 1881. Six years later in 1887, Ireland defeated England for the first time. The following year in 1888 Ireland recorded their first win over Wales.
Rugby was a popular sport mostly in the upper and middle classes. Rugby was in direct competition with soccer and Gaelic football so Rugby never was able to gain a foothold in the urban areas.

Post World War I

After World War One, rugby suffered a decline until about 1930. Irish Catholics began to become interested in rugby by 1930. The increased numbers of Catholic men playing sport help rugby gain a foothold in the Irish sports scene.
The culmination of Ireland's dedication to rugby came to fruition in 1948 when the Irish Rugby team beat England, France and Scotland to win the Grand Slam.
This Grand Slam win firmly entrench Irish Rugby in the national sports scene.

Porfessional Legaue added

From its inception in 1854, Irish Rugby was an amateur sport. All of the Irish club teams were unpaid. These men played for the love of the game.
This changed in 1999 when Irish rugby created professional teams in each of the following Irish provinces: Munster, Leinster, Ulster and Connacth.

Today's Game

Many of the clubs today have a mixture of professional and amateur players. This is called the "open" game.
Rugby is taken very seriously by Ireland. Ireland has approximately 60,000 members who play the game. There are 56 clubs now playing the Ulster branch. There are 71 clubs playing in the Leinster branch. The Munster branch has 59 clubs and Connacth branch has 19 clubs.
In addition, 246 schools play rugby.