Israel national rugby union team
 | ||
| Union | Rugby Israel | |
|---|---|---|
| Head coach |  Kevin Musikanth | |
| Captain | Adrian Rainstein | |
| ||
| World Rugby ranking | ||
| Current | 60 (as of 14 December 2021) | |
| First international | ||
 Switzerland 9 – 9 Israel  (25 May 1981) | ||
| Biggest win | ||
 Finland 8 – 70 Israel (2 May 2009) | ||
| Biggest defeat | ||
 Netherlands 56 – 0 Israel (3 November 1993) | ||
The Israel national rugby union team (Hebrew: נבחרת ישראל בראגבי) is governed by Rugby Israel, which oversees all rugby union in Israel. As of 24 January 2022, Israel is ranked 60th in the IRB World Rankings.
Their home ground is at the Wingate Institute in Netanya, Central District, known for its large number of immigrants from English-speaking countries.
History[]
The sport 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.
A national league was set up in 1972, and the Israel Rugby Union (now Rugby Israel) formed in 1975. Israel's first international 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 (0–53, 60–7) by Lithuania.
Israel beat Slovenia by 26–19 at 11 May 2009, but lost to Lithuania by 3–19 at 23 May 2009, ending their campaign for the 2011 Rugby World Cup qualifyings. These were the first ever games of Israel to be televised.
In the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualifyings, Israel won Division 2B of Europe qualification, defeating all opponents and being promoted to the play-off round.
Record[]
World Cup[]
| World Cup record | World Cup Qualification record | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | P | W | D | L | F | A | P | W | D | L | F | A | |
  1987 |
Not Invited | Not Invited | ||||||||||||
   1991 |
Did not qualify | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 31 | 64 | |||||||
| 1995 |
4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 77 | 118 | ||||||||
 1999 |
4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 46 | 73 | ||||||||
| 2003 |
5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 134 | 83 | ||||||||
| 2007 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 113 | ||||||||
| 2011 |
6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 165 | 64 | ||||||||
 2015 |
6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 171 | 109 | ||||||||
 2019 |
4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 135 | 100 | ||||||||
| 2023 |
Automatically eliminated | |||||||||||||
| Total | 0/9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 17 | 1 | 16 | 766 | 724 | |
European Competitions Since 2000[]
| Season | Division | G | W | D | L | PF | PA | +/− | Pts | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | European Nations Cup Fourth Division Pool 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 54 | 53 | +1 | 5 | 3rd |
| 2001-02 | European Nations Cup Third Division Pool 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 72 | 122 | -50 | 4 | 5th |
| 2002-03 | European Nations Cup Third Division Pool C | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 53 | 38 | +15 | 2nd | |
| 2003-04 | European Nations Cup Third Division Pool C | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 63 | -39 | 2nd | |
| 2004-06 | European Nations Cup Third Division Pool C | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 97 | 52 | +45 | 8 | 3rd |
| 2006-08 | European Nations Cup Third Division 3C | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 141 | 158 | -17 | 14 | 4th |
| 2008-10 | European Nations Cup Third Division 3C | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 257 | 59 | +198 | 24 | 1st |
| 2010-12 | European Nations Cup Second Division 2C | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 186 | 97 | +89 | 30 | 1st |
| 2012-14 | European Nations Cup Second Division 2B | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 212 | 109 | +103 | 33 | 1st |
| 2014-16 | European Nations Cup Second Division 2A | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 77 | 102 | -25 | 3 | 5th |
| 2016-17 | Rugby Europe Conference 1 South | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 135 | 100 | +35 | 14 | 2nd |
| 2017-18 | Rugby Europe Conference 1 South | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 105 | 86 | +19 | 10 | 3rd |
| 2018-19 | Rugby Europe Conference 1 South | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 104 | 62 | +42 | 11 | 3rd |
| 2019-20 | Rugby Europe Conference 1 South | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 38 | 67 | -29 | 2 | 5th |
| 2021-22* | Rugby Europe Conference 1 South | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 15 | -2 | 1 | 3rd |
Overall[]
Updated on 22 December 2021, after match with 
Malta.
| Opponent | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | % Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Andorra |
5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 80% |
 Armenia |
2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0% |
 Austria |
4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 75% |
 Azerbaijan |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
 Bosnia and Herzegovina |
6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 66.67% |
 Bulgaria |
5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 80% |
 Croatia |
7 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 14.29% |
 Cyprus |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
 Czech Republic |
3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0% |
 Denmark |
5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 60% |
| Finland |
5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 80% |
 Greece |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
 Hungary |
4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 75% |
 Latvia |
3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 33.33% |
 Lithuania |
4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0% |
 Luxembourg |
9 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 66.67% |
| Malta |
6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0% |
 Moldova |
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0% |
 Monaco |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
| Netherlands |
2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0% |
 Norway |
5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 80% |
 Serbia |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
 Slovenia |
4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 25% |
 Sweden |
3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Switzerland |
7 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0% |
 Ukraine |
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0% |
 Yugoslavia |
3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Total | 103 | 47 | 52 | 4 | 45.63% |
Recent Matches[]
| Matches |
|---|
Current squad[]
The following players were included in the squad for the 2021–22 Rugby Europe Conference South 1 match against Malta on 13th November 2021.[1]
Head Coach:
Note: Flags indicate national union for the club/province as defined by World Rugby.
| Player | Position | Date of birth (age) | Caps | Club/province
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yaron Harris | Prop | |||
| Tomer Bracha | Hooker | |||
| Nitsan Reizel | Prop | Tel Aviv Heat
| ||
| Thomas Burden | Lock | Tel Aviv Heat
| ||
| Yotam Shulman | Lock | Tel Aviv Heat
| ||
| Yiftach Engel | Flanker | Tel Aviv Heat
| ||
| Ushangi Manjavidze | Flanker | |||
| Uri Gail | Number 8 | 10 February 1996 |
| |
| Omer Levinson | Scrum-half | Tel Aviv Heat
| ||
| Mati Gordon | Fly-half | Tel Aviv Heat
| ||
| Adrian Rainstein (c) | Wing | |||
| Michael Eli | Centre | |||
| Idan Eisenberg | Centre | Tel Aviv Heat
| ||
| Gal Aviram | Wing | |||
| Vitalii Pryimak | Fullback | |||
| Eirad Barkai | Flanker | Tel Aviv Heat
| ||
| Alan Dodin | Fullback | Tel Aviv Heat
| ||
| Yitzhak Hirsch | ?? | |||
| Maayan Shaked | Lock | Tel Aviv Heat
| ||
| Yahel Rozillio | Lock | Tel Aviv Heat
| ||
| Eitan Humphreys | Flanker | 21 February 1990 | ||
| Daniel Stein | Fly-half |
Maccabiah Games[]
Israel is unique amongst the Maccabiah Games teams for two reasons, firstly it is the only true national team competing, and secondly, non-Jews who are Israeli citizens can qualify for it.
See also[]
References[]
- ^ "Malta vs Israel Match Sheet" (PDF). Rugby Europe. 14 November 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Israel national rugby union team. |
Official
| National sports teams of Israel | |
|---|---|
| |
- National sports teams of Israel
- European national rugby union teams
- Asian national rugby union teams
- Rugby union in Israel
- Teams in European Nations Cup (rugby union)
- Israel at the Maccabiah