Andorra national rugby union team

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Andorra

Union

Federació Andorrana de Rugby

Nickname(s)

Els Isards

Coach

Jordi Beal

Captain

Lionel Prat





Team colours

First international

Andorra 24 -3 Luxembourg
(1987-07-01)

Largest win

Andorra 76 - 3 Norway
(2004-09-04)

Worst defeat

Andorra 3 - 62 Spain
(1997-11-08)

The Andorra national rugby union team, nicknamed Els Isards (which is a Pyrenean Chamois) represent Andorra in international rugby union competitions. In March 2006 they were ranked 58th out of 95 Rugby playing nations by the International Rugby Board (IRB). They play most of their home games in Andorra la Vella, the country's capital, though have had some matches in Foix, which is in France.

They compete in the European Nations Cup, and are currently in the third division. In the qualification process for the 2007 Rugby World Cup they are currently playing in round 3, having already knocked out countries such as Norway, Slovenia and Sweden, despite having a population of just 70 000.

1 History
2 World Cup record
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] History

Andorra played their first rugby international in 1987 against Luxembourg. Andorra won the match 24 points to three. Andorra first tried to qualify for the Rugby World Cup for the 1995 tournament. They competed in the preliminary round in the west group of the European qualification. They defeated Denmark, but lost to Switzerland, and were knocked out of contention.

Andorra also attempted to qualify for the 1999 Rugby World Cup. Andorra started off in Pool 3 of Round 1, and won all four of their fixtures, finishing at the top of the final standings to advance through to Round 2. However they were then knocked out of qualifying after Round 2. They competed in Pool B of Round 1 in attempting to qualify for the 2003 World Cup, but did not advance to the next stage.