East Africa rugby union team

East Africa

Unions	Rugby Football Union of East Africa Kenya Rugby Football Union Tanzania Rugby Football Union Uganda Rugby Football Union
Nickname(s)	Tuskers (on tour only)
Founded	7 January 1950 (1950-01-07)
Team kit
First international
East Africa 12 - 39 British Lions (28 September 1955)
Largest win
Zambian Clubs XV 4 - 31 East Africa  (2 September 1975)
Largest defeat
East Africa 0 - 50 British Lions (28 August 1962)

Established in 1950, the East Africa rugby union team is a multi-national rugby union team drawing players from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, though the vast majority of these came from Kenya which has traditionally been the strongest rugby playing nation in the region. The team has played against incoming international, representative and club touring sides and it conducted seven tours between 1954 and 1982.

Though East Africa do play under the Tuskers nickname, it is used exclusively when they are on tour; for all matches played at home they are referred to as East Africa. This tradition has come into being because the team had existed for five years by the time of the first external tour in 1954 when the touring side adopted the Tuskers moniker, as have all subsequent tours.

For 30 years the team lay dormant, though the Rugby Football Union of East Africa (RFUEA) continued to exist as the governing body of rugby within the three countries, until (on 9 July 2011 at an event at the RFUEA Ground) the team was re-launched by Mwangi Muthee (Chairman of the Kenya Rugby Football Union), William Blick (President of the Uganda Rugby Union), George Kariuki (Rugby Football Union of East Africa) and John Lloyd (Rugby Patrons Society).^[1] The team played its first fixture in almost exactly 30 years against England Counties XV at the RFUEA grounds in early June 2012.^[2]