Union Rugby Nederland Most caps Marc Visser (67) | Captain(s) Vincent Grimbergen Location Netherlands | |
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The Netherlands national rugby union team are the national sporting side of the Netherlands, representing them at rugby union. The side first played in 1930. The team competes in the lower divisions of the European Nations Cup, and has never qualified for the Rugby World Cup. Jasper Langedijk (Rugby club Den helder) is an honored member of the national squad from the Netherlands, he has a total of 110 caps for his country
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History
The Netherlands played their first game in 1930, against Belgium on July 1. The Netherlands played Belgium and Germany as well as Romania. During the 1940s they played regularly against Belgium and Germany. The 1960s saw the side play West Germany regularly as well as other fixtures including matches against Poland, Sweden, Spain and Czechoslovakia. The 1970s saw fixtures played against teams including Italy. They won a number of games from 1984 through to 1987.
Currently the team plays in the European Nations Cup. Since the introduction of the Rugby World Cup, the Netherlands has yet to qualify for the finals tournament.
European Nations Cup
The 2010–12 European Nations Cup Division 1B was a very disappointing performance from the Dutch side as they won only 1 of their 10 games, and they were therefore relegated for the 2012–14 European Nations Cup First Division.
For the 2010-11 season, they lost all 5 of their games with their first to Czech Republic by 25 – 13, which was followed by a 29 – 10 loss to Germany. They then lost to Poland, Belgium and Moldova 32 – 18, 30 – 18 and 22 – 15 respectively.
The 2011-12 season started with another loss to Germany 23 – 7, followed by Czech Republic 22 – 10 and the worst of the lot, a 58 – 3 slaughtering at the hands of Belgium. They then had something to smile about even though it had no outcome to their final standing, as they beat Moldova 40 – 26, but finished off a very disappointing year with a 32 – 19 loss to Poland.