World Rugby

Not to be confused with International Rugby League.
For other uses, see World Rugby (disambiguation).

World Rugby
Formation1886; 138 years ago (1886)
(as the International Rugby Football Board)
TypeInternational sport federation
HeadquartersDublin, Ireland
Coordinates53°20′13″N 6°15′08″W / 53.33694°N 6.25222°W / 53.33694; -6.25222
Region served
Worldwide
Membership
113 member unions
17 associated unions
Official languages
Chairman
Bill Beaumont
Vice-Chairman
Bernard Laporte
CEO
Alan Gilpin
AffiliationsInternational Olympic Committee
Websitewww.world.rugby Edit this at Wikidata
Formerly called
International Rugby Football Board (1886-1998)
International Rugby Board (1998-2014)

World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union.[1] World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition.[2] It also organises a number of other international competitions, such as the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the World Under 20 Championship, and the Pacific Nations Cup.

World Rugby's headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland.[3][4] Its membership now comprises 133 national unions.[5] Each member country must also be a member of one of the six regional unions into which the world is divided: Africa, North America, Asia, Europe, South America, and Oceania.[6]

World Rugby was founded as the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) in 1886 by Scotland, Wales and Ireland, with England joining in 1890.[7] Australia, New Zealand and South Africa became full members in 1949.[7] France became a member in 1978 and a further 80 members joined from 1987 to 1999.[7] The body was renamed the International Rugby Board (IRB) in 1998, and took up its current name of World Rugby in November 2014.[8] In 2009, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to include rugby sevens in the 2016 Summer Olympics.[9] World Rugby gained membership of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) in 2010.[10]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference times-1998 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Rugby World Cup History". Rugby Football History. Retrieved 14 July 2006.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference it-2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference irb-org was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "World Rugby Member Unions". World Rugby. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  6. ^ World Rugby Handbook 2014, p. 20.
  7. ^ a b c IRB Handbook 2013, pp. 15–20.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference irb-name-wr was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference rfh-olmpics was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ "Members". ASOIF. Archived from the original on 10 July 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2015.