The Rugby Federation of Armenia ( hy, Հայաստան Ռեգբիի ֆեդերացիա, Hajastani Regbii Federatsia; russian: Федерация регби Армении, Federatsiya Regbi Armenii) is the governing body for

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

. It was founded in 2000 and joined FIRA-AER (now

Rugby Europe Rugby Europe is the administrative body for rugby union in Europe. It was formed in 1999 to promote, develop, organise, and administer the game of rugby in Europe under the authority of World Rugby (the sport's global governing body). However, it ...

) as an associate member in 2002. Rugby Europe suspended the Rugby Federation of Armenia in November 2014 due to inactivity.

History

Rugby was first played in the country in the 1960s, when Armenia was a republic within the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Armenia had its own representative team within the USSR, although it was not considered to be a proper national side. Armenian clubs including Yerevan Dinamo RC and Yerevan Spartak RC played in the top division of Soviet Championship and

Soviet Cup The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (russian: Кубок СССР),, be, Кубак СССР, uz, СССР Кубоги, kk, КСРО Кубогы, ka, სსრკ თასი, az, ССРИ кубоку, lt, TSRS taurė, ro, Cupa URSS (Moldova ...

. The rugby teams were disbanded due to the effects of the

first Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War, referred to in Armenia as the Artsakh Liberation War ( hy, Արցախյան ազատամարտ, Artsakhyan azatamart) was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in th ...

and economic difficulties in Armenia during first years of independence in the early 1990s. Rugby in Armenia went into hibernation for almost a decade until the founding of the Rugby Federation of Armenia (RFA) in 2000. Gagik Panikian become the RFA president in 2002 and the RFA joined FIRA-AER (now

) later that year. National teams for sevens and fifteen-a-side were soon formed to play in European competitions. As of 2012, there were three rugby clubs in Armenia: Ararat, Artashat, and Ureni. Rugby Europe suspended the Rugby Federation of Armenia due to inactivity in 2014.

National teams

- the national men's rugby union team was formed in 2004 and was largely drawn from players of Armenian heritage in France. The team played at the 2004 European Championships, defeating and . * Armenia 7s - the national men's rugby union seven-a-side team was formed in 2003.

References

External links

Official site: *
Rugby Federation of Armenia
Other sites:
Armenian Rugby Supporters website (Հայերեն, in English, на Русском)

Rugby union in Armenia Sports governing bodies in Armenia

Sports organizations established in 2000 {{Rugbyunion-stub

History

National teams

See also

References

External links