| Rugby union in Spain | |
|---|---|
 Spain (in blue kit) playing Portugal in March 2009 | |
| Country | Spain |
| Governing body | Spanish Rugby Federation |
| National team(s) | Spain |
| First played | 1901 |
| Registered players | 37,241 |
| Clubs | 332 |
National competitions | |
Club competitions | |
Rugby union is a growing team sport in Spain. As of 2019, there were 37,241 registered rugby union players in Spain, playing for 332 clubs in various divisions. The sport's governing body in Spain, the Spanish Rugby Federation (Spanish: Federación Española de Rugby), was founded in 1923. It joined the International Rugby Board in 1988,[1] and is also a member of Rugby Europe.
There are traditionally four main rugby playing regions in Spain: the capital Madrid, the city of Valladolid in the Old Castile region, the entire regions of Basque Country, and Catalonia, particularly in the north and also around Barcelona.[1] Rugby has been emerging recently in Valencia and Andalucia as well, with clubs like Marbella or CAU Valencia providing several players to the national team.
The Spanish national team plays in the Rugby Europe Championship, a competition for second tier European rugby nations such as Georgia, Romania and Russia. Spain is ranked 18th in the world, and played at the 1999 Rugby World Cup. The national sevens team is now one of the 15 "core teams" that participate in each event of the annual World Rugby Sevens Series, having earned that status at the 2017 Hong Kong Sevens. Both men and women rugby sevens national teams qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games.