Ireland National Rugby League

Education: 1990s

In 1989 in Ireland, Brian Corrigan founded the first rugby-bing club called “Dublin Blues”, in which classical rugby players practiced in the summer and played against British clubs that toured. In 1995, by order of the British leadership, rugby league was designated as the person responsible for the development of Irish rugbilig, and in the same year the Irish national team held the historic first meeting against the USA national team on St. Patrick's Day and defeated the Americans with a score of 24:22 - Joe Lydon from " Wigan Warriors "Was the playing coach of that team and came on as a substitute; He was helped by Terry Flanagan , mentor " Huddersfield Giants , And former player of the British national team Neil Wood.

The team competed at the 1995 Developing Teams Tournament in England, beating Moldova with a score of 48:24 and Morocco with a score of 42: 6, thanks to which she won her group and reached the final. The Irish met with the Cook Islands national team and lost 22: 6, despite the fact that the Irish were played by professionals Des Foy and Martin Crompton . A year later, the national team performed in the World Super League in Rugby League-9 in the city of Suva ( Fiji ), where it took 8th place (prize money amounted to $ 4,750) ^[1] ; Before the tournament, the Irish held a touch-rugby match against the Australians at the National Stadium in Suva - the game on February 20, 1996 ended with the defeat of the Irish 12:20. That same year, the Irish beat the Americans on St. Patrick's Day 14:12. In August of the same year, before the charity meeting of the clubs “ Leeds Rainos "And" Wigan Warriors "Came out on the rampage" teams of Ireland and Scotland at the stadium " RDS Arena , For the national team of Ireland played the player of the British national team Des Foy .

2000s

In 1997, according to the rule of the grandfather, the Irish national team won the right to recruit all Super League players with Irish roots, but this also strongly affected the chances of players born and performing in Irish clubs. Nevertheless, rugbill players born in Ireland were included in the national team of Ireland in the tournaments of the three nations of 1998 (against France and Scotland) and 1999 (against Scotland and Wales). The success of the Irish national team was enough for the team to get its place at the 2000 World Championships in England. The Irish won the group, beating consistently Samoans 30:16, Scots 18: 6 and New Zealand Maori 30:16, but in the quarterfinals gave the British 26:16. The success of the Irish laid the foundations for the development of rugby football in the country and beyond.

On November 2, 2007, following the results of the qualifying tournament for the 2008 World Cup, Ireland played a draw with Lebanon and entered the World Cup, ahead of the Lebanese on the difference in points, since the Irish in the standings scored the same number of points. In the final stage, the national team of Ireland fell into Group C against Tonga and Samoa : they lost to the Tongans with a score of 22:20, while the Samoans beat 34:16. According to the difference in scoring points, they were in 1st place and reached the winners of Group B, Fiji , who lost 14:30 and did not reach the semifinals.

2010s

At the 2013 World Championships , where the Irish were due to their previous achievements in 2008, teams from Australia , Fiji and England were in group A. The coach of the national team was May 24, 2011, Mark Eston, who previously worked at the Sheffield Eagles club ". The Irish had no chance to leave such a group, and they lost all three matches, gaining only 14 points in all three meetings and conceding 120.

In connection with the failure of the World Championships, the Irish had to fight for entering the 2017 World Championships through the qualifying round in the European zone - having defeated the teams of Russia and Spain , the Irish left Group B for the World Championship. In the final stage, the Irish got into group C to the teams of Papua New Guinea and Wales . In the intergroup meeting, the points in which were taken into account of the group stage, they met with the Italian national team from group D and unexpectedly replayed them at 36:12 ^[2] . At the group stage, the Irish lost to the Papua Guineans with a score of 14: 6, losing the chance to save the meeting in the 78th minute, when they missed the attempt after their own mistakes ^[3] , and beat the Wales 34: 6 team. But due to the fact that Papua New Guinea won their intergroup meeting against the USA, the Irish did not qualify for the quarterfinal ^[4] .

Ireland, which took 3rd place in the European Championship in 2018, went to the qualifying stage for the World Cup in 2021 - in October-November 2019 in the matches against Spain and Italy, the fate of the national team's trip to the World Cup in England will be decided.

World Championships

Application for the qualifying tournament of the World Cup 2021 ^[5] :

As of November 12, 2017, Ireland has played 54 matches since 1995: 23 wins, 3 draws, 28 losses. At various times, 18 teams became opponents of the national team. Data are as of November 12, 2017.

• Rugby League in Ireland
• Ireland Regbilig (governing organization)
• The list of players in the Ireland national team by rugbilig
• Ireland Rugby Team

• Rugby League of Ireland Official Website