Luxembourg national rugby union team

Luxembourg

Union	Fédération Luxembourgeoise de rugby
Nickname(s)	The Lions (french:Les Lions)
Ground(s)	Stade Boy Konen Cessange and Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg City
Coach(es)	Marty Davis, Paul Evans
Captain(s)	Saman Rezapour
Most caps	Nigel Sharplin 38 caps
Top scorer	Gilles Caviglia 288 pts
Team kit
First international
Belgium 28 – 6 Luxembourg (3 May 1975)
Largest win
Luxembourg 78 – 12 Norway (15 April 2000)
Largest defeat
Luxembourg 3 – 116 Sweden (5 May 2001)

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 International Rugby Board 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. Over the last half decade however, the national team has been marred with loss after loss with a progressive decline in performance despite the progress of clubs like Rugby Club Luxembourg and the youth groups. The 2010/11 season being a particularly poor one with a lucky win against Finland, two incredibly poor performances against Bulgaria and Greece and being beaten by a half-ton by an under-strength Cyprus side in what was arguably one of the most embarrassing moments in Luxembourgish rugby history.

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. The club played its first competitive game against US Castillionnaise in September 1973. Up until 1995, the club played in the Alsace-Lorraine regional league. In that year, the team joined the Belgian second division, which it belonged to until 1998, when it earned promotion to the first division. In 2001, the club decided to return to the French league system, again playing regionally in Alsace-Lorraine. It won its division in 2008 but, after an invitation to play in Germany, decided to join the German league system in 2009. Today the club remains the premier rugby club in Luxembourg, never having been defeated in the Luxembourg cup when it has been played (the cup has not been played since 2009).

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 caters to children– 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 season 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 division in Belgium, now promoting them to the first division in Belgium.

2011 Squad

National Team seniors (Loss 7–48 against Cyprus 08 October 2011)

1 Saman Rezapour (15 caps / 10 pts)

2 David J Wilson (3 caps / 0 pts)

3 Christopher Ellis (8 caps / 0 pts)

4 Stuart Kelly (30 caps / 0 pts)

5 Scott McKinlay (16 caps / 10 pts)

6 Vincent Giffard (6 caps / 0 pts)

7 Nigel Sharplin (38 caps / 20 pts)

8 Jan Louw (2 caps / 0 pts)

9 Cedric Handtschoewercker (3 caps / 0 pts)

10 Alex Goodhew (8 caps / 25 pts)

11 Philippe Letalon (3 caps / 0 pts)

12 Steve Clarke (11 caps / 16 pts)

13 Christophe Balthazard (7 caps / 10 pts)

14 Robin Dex (3 caps / 5 pts)

15 Maxime Dozin (7 caps / 2 pts)

16 Ryan Shakespeare (1 cap / 0 pts)

17 Julian Da Col (21 caps / 5 pts)

18 Tim Seite (7 caps / 0 pts)

19 Bryan Fage (7 caps / 20 pts)

20 Matthieu Bracchetti (1 cap / 0 pts)

21 Damien Bessieres (4 caps / 0 pts)

22 James Clarke (2 caps / 0 pts)

10 most appearances

Rank	Player	Caps
1	Nigel Sharplin	38
2	Gilles Caviglia	37
3	Arnaud tribellini	35
4	Ruadhri Guilfoyle	31
5	Stuart Kelly	30
6	Zelito Neves Dos Santos	28
7=	Christophe Hoffmann	27
7=	Joe Lister	27
7=	Andy Thompson	27
10	Willy Lafaysse	26

15 top scorers

Rank	Player	Pts.
1	Gilles Caviglia	288 pts.
2	Jonathan Harris	65 pts.
3	Steve Knowles	63 pts.
4	Graham Cope	61 pts.
5	Guilfoyle Ruadhri	38 pts.
6	Warren Young	35 pts.
7	Tony Whiteman	27 pts.
8=	Anthony Isturis	25 pts.
8=	Simon Williams	25 pts.
8=	Alex Goodhew	25 pts.
11=	Nigel Sharplin	20 pts.
11=	Willy Lafaysse	20 pts.
13=	Alan Dunn	18 pts.
13=	Stefan Focas	18 pts.
15=	Steve Clarke	16 pts.
15=	Richard Pickering	16 pts.