Andorra national rugby union team

Updated on Jan 09, 2024

Edit

Comment

Nickname(s) Els Isards Location Andorra Captain Jonathan Garcia		Coach(es) Jeannot Martinho Union Andorran Rugby Federation

Andorra national rugby union team sevens top 6 facts

The Andorra national rugby union team, nicknamed Els Isards (which is a Pyrenean Chamois) represent Andorra in international rugby union competitions. They are currently ranked 61st out of 100 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 second division. As well as playing numerous friendlies they have also taken part in the qualification stages of the Rugby World Cup, competing in every tournament since 1995.

History

Andorra played their first rugby international in 1987 against Luxembourg. Andorra won the match 24–3.

Andorra first tried to qualify for the Rugby World Cup in 1995. 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.

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 coming last in a five team group.

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 coming third in a six team group.

The 2007 tournament saw many more fixtures and gained the small nation some greater publicity by playing in the first match of the tournament, beating Norway 76–3. They won a 2 leg match, came third in the ensuing five team group thus qualifying for a further 2 leg playoff, victory in which led to a further five team group in which they were last. Competing with the more populous Moldova, Netherlands, Spain and Poland, having beaten Norway, Hungary, Slovenia and Sweden certainly brought Andorra to the attention of more rugby followers, all in spite of a small population of just 70,000.

Popularity

The popularity of football in Andorra has been on the decline due to a poor record at home and away. This has left room for Andorran rugby to rise out of the shadows. Mainly affected by the fanatical popularity of rugby in southern France, Els Isards continue to impress on the international stage. This has led to the rapid increase in the number of registered players in Andorra. Many are now suggesting that rugby in Andorra has grown to such an extent that it has now become the tiny nation's national sport.

As well as a men's 15 aside team, the men have competed in the European Sevens competition since 2005. In 2005 they won promotion to the next division and in both 2006 and 2007 made the finals of the competition.

Also Andorra have a women's set up. They have only played sevens so far, competing in 2006 and 2007.

Youth rugby in Andorra is less developed and has to date only consisted of training camps.

Analysis

Andorra have played friendlies, FIRA competitions and World Cup Qualifiers. The full results list including details of unplayed games can be found below. The various game types can be summarised as follows – note that unfulfilled and defaulted games are NOT included in the analysis although they do count towards the game count in the full list. Also if a game has been both a World Cup and FIRA game then it is only recorded here in the World Cup figures.

Matches against individual teams can be summarised as follows