Côte d'Ivoire national rugby union team

Rugby team
country =Ivory Coast


imagesize = 80px
union = Fédération Ivoirienne de Rugby
nickname = Les Éléphants
captain =
coach =
from =
caps =
top scorer =
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first = ru|ZIM 22 - 9 ru-rt|CIV
(1990-05-05)
bigwin = ru|CIV 47 - 0 ru-rt|TUN
(2001-05-12)
bigloss = ru|CIV 0 - 89 ru-rt|SCO
(1995-05-26)
World cup apps = 1
year = 1995
best = Bottom of pool, 1995The Côte d'Ivoire rugby union team is one of the minor international teams in rugby union. They are also known as "Les Éléphants" (The Elephants). Cote d'Ivoire plays in the annual Africa Cup.

The sport is popular among school children, but the rugby union playing population in Côte d'Ivoire is still relatively small with only 10 clubs and around 11,000 registered senior players.

History

The Fédération Ivoirienne de Rugby was only formed in March 1990, the same month that it joined the International Rugby Board. They qualified for the World Cup the first time in 1995 and suffered defeats by Scotland, France and Tonga.

With a small player base, and starved of strong competition, the team has deteriorated in recent years. Recent defeats to Morocco mean they are ranked below the North African side. Their record in the World Cup has been poor, and they haven't managed a win. Their record defeat, 89-0 against Scotland in the 1995 tournament, led to some questioning the presence of the minor teams at the tournament. Côte d'Ivoire, however, played much better, the following match, losing to France by 54-18, with 2 tries scored. The final match with Tonga, lost by 29-11, in the 1995 World Cup saw a major tragedy, as Max Brito suffered a cervical spine injury that left him a quadriplegic.

Results summary

Their Test match record against all nations (listed alphabetically), updated to 2006-04-24, is as follows:

Against	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn
Cameroon	1	1	0	0
France	1	0	1	0
Madagascar	1	0	1	0
Morocco	9	1	8	0
Namibia	2	1	1	0
Scotland	1	0	1	0
Senegal	1	1	0	0
Tonga	1	0	1	0
Tunisia	6	3	2	1
Zimbabwe	4	2	2	0
Total	27	9	17	1

ee also

* Fédération Ivoirienne de Rugby
* Rugby union in Côte d'Ivoire
* World Cup
* Côte d'Ivoire at the Rugby World Cup

External links

* [http://www.irb.com/en/Home/MemberUnionHomePage?UnionID=52 Côte d'Ivoire] on IRB.com
* [http://rugbydata.com/ivorycoast Côte d'Ivoire] on rugbydata.com