Rugby union in Sweden is a minor but growing sport. The Swedish Rugby Union ( sv, Svenska Rugbyförbundet) was founded in 1932, and joined the IRB in 1988.Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Complete Book of Rugby'' (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ) p75

History

Swedish football Association football is the most popular sport in Sweden, with over 240,000 licensed players (approximately 56,000 women and 184,000 men) with another 240,000 youth players. There are around 3,200 active clubs fielding over 8,500 teams, which ...

" in the nineteenth century was a variant of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

with some rugby elements. By 1900, Swedish football clubs were using

the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...

's rules, with no rugby influence. The pure form of rugby was introduced between the wars. The visiting cruisers of the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, and played the first recorded match in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

The sport became well established in this period thanks also to the efforts of Yves Gylden, who had learnt the game in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and founded the first three Swedish clubs in Stockholm. As with many other countries in Europe, the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

nearly finished off the game. Sweden was neutral in this conflict, meaning that the game did not suffer the war casualties that it did in other countries. By 1960, the number of active clubs had declined to fewer than ten. This was remedied in the 60s and 70s by an intensive development programme, which helped to bring that figure up to at least 55 clubs in the mid 90s. A persistent problem for Swedish rugby has been the climate, which means that many pitches may be under snow for large parts of the year. For this reason rugby is a summer sport in Sweden, the season running from late April to the middle of October. Notable players include: * Kari Tapper, a Number 8, who played for the Barbarians * Kanogo Njuru, an

Outside centre In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

, who played for the Barbarians.

Club Rugby

The

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

is the highest tier of the national rugby union competition in Sweden. The first Swedish championship took place in 1943 and the current champions (2016) is Stockholm Exiles. Under the Allsvenskan is two levels of regional competition. New for the 2010 season is a national rugby sevens series that will be played over multiple weekends. This initiative comes from the decision by the IOC to include rugby sevens in the Olympics. The Swedish club champions also compete for the Nordic Cup with fellow club champions of Denmark, Finland and Norway.

References

*Richards, Huw ''A Game for Hooligans: The History of Rugby Union'' (

Mainstream Publishing Mainstream Publishing was a publishing company in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded in 1978, it ceased trading in December 2013.Charlotte WilliamsMainstream to cease publishing 1 March 2013, The Bookseller.com' (Retrieved 30 December 2016) It was ass ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, 2007, )

External links

Swedish Rugby Federation
(Swedish)

{{Rugby union in Europe

History

Club Rugby

See also

References

External links