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Union | Luxembourg Rugby Federation | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Head coach | Alexandre Benedetti | |||
Captain | Christian Olsen | |||
Most caps | Nigel Shaplin (51) | |||
Top scorer | Gilles Caviglia (288) | |||
Top try scorer | Steve Knowles Adrien Timmermans (11) | |||
Home stadium | Stade de Luxembourg, Luxembourg City | |||
| ||||
World Rugby ranking | ||||
Current | 59 (as of 6th May 2024) | |||
Highest | 56 (2019) | |||
Lowest | 94 (2008) | |||
First international | ||||
Belgium 28 – 6 Luxembourg 3 May 1975 | ||||
Biggest win | ||||
Luxembourg 84 – 7 Slovenia 24 April 2024 | ||||
Biggest defeat | ||||
Luxembourg 3 – 116 Sweden 5 May 2001 | ||||
Website | www.rugby.lu |
The Luxembourg national rugby union team is a minor team, and is ranked as a third tier nation. They are currently competing in the 2024-2025 Rugby Europe Trophy. Since 1996 Luxembourg also competes in the sevens circuits in Europe Luxembourg national rugby sevens team.
Luxembourg has been a member of FIRA since 1976, two years after the founding of Luxembourg Rugby Federation (French: Fédération Luxembourgeoise de Rugby (FLR)). The Grand Duchy has participated several times in the FIRA championships and, despite the small size, has honourably acquitted itself. Luxembourg has also been a member of the International Rugby Board since 1991.
The Luxembourg rugby team is the only national sports team to have been three times champions of their group in a European competition. In 1995, more than 20 points scored against Slovenia at Cessange and more than 20 points scored in Split against Croatia and finally an excellent draw against Andorra in Luxembourg enabled them to be champions of their group. In 1997 they won the Bronze Cup with wins against Bosnia, Bulgaria and Monaco. Luxembourg has in their past encounter recorded a 10–10 draw against Georgia, but the best performance to date was a "Grand Slam" in 2004 in FIRA-AER European Cup division 3B. In the 2017–2018 campaign, Luxembourg won the Grand Slam against Denmark, Norway, Finland and Estonia in the Rugby Europe Conference 2 North, while also integrating several young players in the squad, and gained promotion to the Rugby Europe Conference 1 North for the 2018–2019 campaign.
They spent 4 consescutive seasons in Rugby Europe Conference North, surprising many by avoiding relegation. During this time they recorded impressive wins against higher-ranked Moldova, Hungary and Sweden.
In the 2023-24 Rugby Europe Championships, Luxembourg were drawn into Pool B in the Conference. They won all four matches by huge margins, defeating Hungary, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia. Their 84-7 victory against Slovenia is the club's record largest win. Luxembourg secured promotion to the 2024-25 Rugby Europe Trophy after defeating Moldova 19-0 in a playoff match. It is the first time Luxembourg have played in this division and is also the highest level at which they have ever played.
The national side is ranked 53rd in the world (as of 17 August 2024).[1]