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Jump to navigation Jump to search This article is about the men’s team. Russian club rugby the women’s team, see Russia women’s national rugby union team.

Russia is seen as a Tier 2 union by World Rugby. Russia played in Pool C and finished fifth, scoring one point. Previous qualification campaigns saw elimination to Portugal ahead of the 2007 tournament and expulsion from 2003 qualifying for breaches of eligibility rules. The Rugby Union of the Soviet Union was founded in 1936, although the national side did not play its first official international until 1974. The Soviet Union took time to establish itself, but by the mid-1980s was regularly beating the likes of Italy and Romania. Following the breakup of the USSR, Russian players played for the interim Commonwealth of Independent States team, which played four matches during 1991 and 1992.

That edition of the tournament saw Russia secure its first, and to-date only, win over Georgia. The Russian national side has since played its regular competitive rugby in FIRA-AER’s European Nations Cup, the second level mirror tournament to the Six Nations. In addition, as part of attempts to secure regular international fixtures the team has played in the now-defunct Superpowers Cup, winning the tournament once, the Nations Cup, the Churchill Cup, and most recently the IRB’s International Rugby Series. The RUR has been attempting to gain greater participation in the autumn test window, and is now being integrated into World Rugby’s global test match schedule.

The Soviet Union declined to take up its invite to take part in the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup on the basis of the IRB membership by apartheid South Africa. The Soviet Rugby Union was not an IRB member in time for 1991 Rugby World Cup qualifying. In qualifying for the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the first in which the national side was involved, Russia came through preliminary qualifying with wins over Poland and Georgia, before beating Germany but losing to Romania for the Eastern Europe spot. In European qualifying for the 1999 Rugby World Cup, Russia finished fourth in Pool 1 in Round B, which was not enough to progress from a group also including Italy, Georgia, Croatia, and Denmark. The Russian national side was expelled from qualifying for the 2003 Rugby World Cup, due to eligibility issues. RUR claimed had qualified through ancestry.