2009-05-17 Kituro Rugby Club RC Frameries

Rugby union in Belgium is a growing sport. The national 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 it ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

is the

Belgian Rugby Federation The Belgian Rugby Federation (FBRB – ''Fédération Belge de Rugby'' in French and ''Belgische Rugby Bond'' in Dutch) is the governing body for rugby union in Belgium. It was founded in 1931 and became affiliated to the International Rugby Bo ...

. The national team plays in the European Nations Cup, and as of October 2014, they were ranked thirtieth in the

World Rugby Rankings The World Rugby Rankings (formerly the IRB Rankings) is a ranking system for national teams in rugby union, managed by World Rugby, the sport's governing body. There are separate men's and women's rankings. The teams of World Rugby's member nation ...

Governing body

The national governing body for rugby union in Belgium is the

(FBRB - ''Fédération Belge de Rugby'' in French and ''Belgische Rugby Bond'' in Dutch) which is headquartered in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. The Belgian Rugby Federation was formed in 1931, and joined the IRFB in 1988.Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Complete Book of Rugby'' (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ) p63 Rugby union is governed by two regional bodies that answer to FBRB, the national governing body. Most of the clubs in the northern region of Belgium are governed by the Vlaamse Rugby Bond (VRB). The remaining clubs are governed by the Ligue Belge Francophone de Rugby (LBFR). Rugby union in Belgium is also structured into four districts for competition purposes. These districts are; Brabant, Hainaut, Liège/ Namur/

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, and

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

. Within these districts, there are also several leagues and divisions that are structured based on the skill level of the clubs.

History

For a long time, Belgian rugby's most high-profile personality was the former international referee, Teddy Lacroix, who became president of the union. Rugby union in Belgium has not been popular historically, but due to its recent international successes, it is a quickly growing sport. As of the December 2007, more than half of the nearly seven thousand registered players are

pre-teen Preadolescence is a stage of human development following middle childhood and preceding adolescence.New Oxford American Dictionary. 2nd Edition. 2005. Oxford University Press. It commonly ends with the beginning of puberty. Preadolescence is c ...

s or teenagers. In addition, there are currently forty-eight domestic clubs that compete against each other on various levels.

Notable players

Notable Belgian rugby players include: *

Jacques Rogge Jacques Jean Marie Rogge, Count Rogge (, ; 2 May 1942 – 29 August 2021) was a Belgian sports administrator and physician who served as the eighth President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2001 to 2013. In 2013, Rogge bec ...

, best known as the eighth president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), played on the Belgium national rugby team. *

John Raphael John Raphael may refer to: *John Raphael (catepan), the Catepan of Italy from 1046 to 1049 *John Raphael (sportsman) (18821917), Belgian-born English cricketer and rugby union footballer *John Raphael Smith John Raphael Smith (1751 – 2 Marc ...

, born and died in Belgium, but moved to England as a child and was educated there. He was capped nine times for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1905 and 1906. In 1910 he captained the British Lions in a tour of Argentina, consisting of the South American nation's inaugural Test match. * James Atkins * Oli Hockley * Jimmy Parker *

Vincent Debaty Vincent Debaty (; born 2 October 1981) is a Belgian born French rugby union footballer. He has played for France and in the Top 14 for ASM Clermont Auvergne with whom he won two Top 14 Championships in 2010 & 2017. In February 2017 it was annou ...

National team

The

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

, nicknamed the Black Devils (), has been competing in international tests since 1932.

2006-08 European Nations Cup

The national team competed in competition in the Second Division at the 2010-2012 European Nations Cup winning the division and securing promotion to Division 1A for the next season. ¹ ''Results from Belgian view''

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. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, 2007, )

External links

Official website of the Fédération Belge de Rugby (in Dutch)Official website of the Belgian Rugby Federation (in English)Official website of the Ligue Belge Francophone (in Dutch)

{{Rugby union outside WC