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 ...

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

is a minor but growing sport.

Governing body

In 2012, Hotam Fayzulloh and others founded the Tajik Rugby Union.

History

Soviet Period

Rugby union was played in

the Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...

as early as in 1908. In 1934 the Moscow Championship was started, and in 1936 the first Soviet Championship took place. In 1949, rugby union was forbidden in the USSR during the "fight against the

cosmopolitanism Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all human beings are members of a single community. Its adherents are known as cosmopolitan or cosmopolite. Cosmopolitanism is both prescriptive and aspirational, believing humans can and should be " world citizens ...

". The competitions were resumed in 1957, and the Soviet Championship in 1966. In 1975 the Soviet national team played their first match. In 1962, rugby in Tajikistan underwent a major expansion as four new teams were founded.Louis, p39 Tajikistan had its own rugby team in the USSR, but it was not treated as a proper national side.

Today

With the founding of the Tajik Rugby Union in 2012, the prerequisites for the creation of Rugby teams (both male and female) in Tajikistan were set. With the help of NZ filmmaker Faramarz Beheshsti and others, first youth and a female team started training in and around Dushanbe.

References

* Louis, Victor & Jennifer ''Sport in the Soviet Union'' (Oxford Pergamon, 1980, )

External links