Luxembourg national rugby union team

Rugby team
country = Luxembourg


union = Fédération Luxembourgeoise de rugby
nickname = The Lions (french:"Les Lions")
ground = Stade Boy Konen
Cessange and Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg City
captain = Andy Thompson
coach = Marty Davis
from = September 2003
caps = Arnaud Tribellini 35 caps
top scorer = Gilles Caviglia 255 pts
pattern_la1 = _white_hoops
pattern_b1 = _whitehoops
pattern_ra1 = _white_hoops
leftarm1 = 8CB3F2
body1 = 8CB3F2
rightarm1 = 8CB3F2
shorts1 = 000080
socks1 = ff0000
first = flagicon|Belgium Belgium 28 - 6 Luxembourg flagicon|Luxembourg
(1 July, 1975)
bigwin = flagicon|Luxembourg Luxembourg 78 - 12 Norway flagicon|Norway
(15 April, 2000)
bigloss = flagicon|Luxembourg Luxembourg 3 - 116 Sweden flagicon|Sweden
(5 May, 2001)
no World cup apps = 0
year =
best = The Luxembourg national rugby union team represents Luxembourg at rugby union. Luxembourg is a minor team, and is ranked as a third tier nation. The team participates in the annual FIRA-AER European Cup division 3B.

Luxembourg has been a member of FIRA since 1976, two years after the founding of Luxembourg Rugby Federation (french: "Fédération Luxembourgeoise de Rugby"). The Grand Duchy has participated several times in the FIRA championships and, despite the small size, has honourably acquitted itself. Luxembourg has also been a member of the IRFB sense 1991.

The Luxembourg rugby team is the only national sports team to have been three times champions of their group in a European competition. In 1995, more than 20 points scored against Slovenia at Cessange and more than 20 points scored in Split against Croatia and finally an excellent draw against Andorra in Luxembourg enabled them to be champions of their group. In 1997 they won the Bronze Cup with wins against Bosnia, Bulgaria and Monaco. One should also note the fabulous match against Georgia a few years ago. But the best performance held is a “Grand Slam” in 2004 in FIRA-AER European Cup division 3B.

Since September 2003, Marty Davis replaced Francis Serres with responsibility over the National Teams. His first matches against Bosnia (away) and Lithuania (Home) in FIRA-AER European League were successful and gave hope for the future of the Senior Team. In Spring 2004, two more victories against Bulgaria (Home) and Austria (away) put Luxembourg on top of the pool of the FIRA-AER Division 3B.

National clubs

The Rugby Club Luxembourg was founded in May 1973 by a group of expatriates working in the Grand Duchy. Several of the founders still live in Luxembourg and contribute one way or another to the sport.

Currently RCL play in the Alsace-Lorraine French league having spent 7 years in Belgium National 1st league. RCL missed promotion to the top division by one point, the RCL hopes a direct access to Regional top division this season 2004/05.

De Rugby Club Walferdange was founded in 1990. In 2001, after 10 years in the Belgian League they finished top of the third division and champion during the season 2002/03. After one season in the second division, the club was relegated to the third Division by one point. The goal of the season 2004/05 must be a return to the Belgium Second Division.

The Richard Mertens Club is a member of the European Community sports clubs (french: "Cercle Sportif des Communautés Européennes") and works mainly with the rugby school - mini-poussins up through to the juniors, about 100 youngsters in all. The school had a very successful past seasons – the benjamins did very well and the juniors represented Luxembourg in the world championships, winning group D by beating Switzerland in 98 and participating in top 32 in Wales in 99. In the 2006/2007 seanson the Junior (under 18 and under 20) Team won the Belgium Third Division. In the 2007/2008 season Luxembourg's Under 19 team did it again by winning the second devision in Belgium, now promoting them to the first devision in Belgium. :)

*National Team seniors (victory 22-16 against Israel 19/5/2007)

1-Jean Benel

2-Christophe Hoffman

3-Cedric De Micheli

4-Andy Thompson(captain)

5-Jonathan Flynn

6-Ian Doherty

7-Phil Harvey

8-Thibaud Sacaze

9-Joe Lister (Stumpy)

10-Tony Whiteman

11-Steve Knowles

12-Ruadhri Guilfoyle

13-Cedric Hervé

14-Nigel Sharplin

15-Jonathan Harris

*SUBS

16-Steve Speciale

17-Paul Sullivan

18-Stuart Kelly

19-Claude Da Col

20-Stephen Lowe

21-Fred Hervé

22-Guido Chimenti

*Recent call-up

Zelito Neves dos Santos

Denis Laloy

Gilles Caviglia

Arrou-Vignod

Steven Clarke

Donald Venkapaten

Horan Enda

Scott McKinlay

Raphael Gillet

Alex Van Zeeland

Loïc Hervé

Jean-François Lens

* 11 most appearances

1-Arnaud Tribellini 35 caps,2-Gilles Caviglia 32 caps,3-Ruadhri Guilfoyle 29 caps,4-Andy Thompson 26 caps,5-Joe Lister 25 caps,6-Horan Enda 24 caps,7-Nicolas Edwards 24 caps,8-Greg Brittin 23 caps,9-Stefan Focas 22 caps,10-Paul Graham 21 caps,11- Nigel Sharplin 21 caps.

* 10 top scorers

1-Gilles Caviglia 255 pts,2-Steve Knowles 63 pts,3-Cope Graham 61 pts,4-Jonathan Harris 39 pts,5-Guilfoyle Ruadhri 38 pts,6-Warren Young 35 pts,7-Anthony Isturis 25 pts,8-Simon Williams 25 pts,9-Tony Whiteman 23 pts,10-Nigel Sharplin 20 pts.