Rugby union in Austria
In Austria, the rugby union sport in public is still not very popular. There are currently 13 men's clubs, of which 6 operate an active women's team. Since the season 1992/93 there is an official Austrian Rugby Championship.
History
The first rugby game on Austrian soil was held on April 14, 1912. It then played two English teams on the Hohenwarte against each other to make rugby in Austria known. Until the thirties this was also successful. After the Second World War Rugby was long but disappeared. 1978, the first club was founded. He was "Vienna Celtic Rugby Football Club" baptized and comes from the Austrian rugby stronghold Vienna. Nine years later, the second club was founded with the Rugby Club Vienna.
Mainly, the members of the RC Wien, encouraging the further spread in Austria, with the result that the RC Danube was founded. In 1992 it was possible to start with the three Austrian football teams and the Lycée Français a championship. 1993 another team was due to a discharged in Leoben countries established game and the Rugby League Alps launched. It took the four Austrian and two Slovenian teams. A year later, this league was discharged with a Croatian, Slovenian and two three Austrian teams again. From the Alps League of RC Wien emerged as the strongest team. However, after two seasons of the Alps League had to be stopped.
After the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa two more clubs were founded in Graz and Villach. The 1995/96 season was contested in two leagues, as the level difference was too big for a league. 1996/97, this idea was rejected, and only played one league. This proved to be a wrong decision. The remaining three Viennese clubs - RC Vienna Celtic RFC and RC Lycee - played in the seasons 97/98 and 98/99 with three teams Moravia ( Brno, Olmutz, Zlin ) the Austro - Moravia league, from the both times the RC Wien emerged as the winner. At the same time RC Wien II, Celtic B, Graz, Leoben and Villach competed for the title in the Bundesliga.
The World Cup in 1999 was re- establishing a new club, the RC Innsbruck, at. The RC Donau was newly established. Since the end of 1999 is also available in Linz, Upper Austria, a rugby club that went to the second division in the fall of 2000. When qualifying for the World Cup in 2003 in Australia, Austria failed in the 2nd round, but increased in the group A of the 3rd Division of the FIRA -AER after three clear victories against Luxembourg ( 77-0 ), Israel ( 21-6 ) and Norway ( 51-7 ) on. In December 2003, a candidate Rugby as a member of BSO ( Federal Sports Organisation ). 2004 were founded in Lienz and in Krems an der Donau clubs, followed in 2005 St. Anton am Arlberg and the WRC Innsbruck.
In 2006 the Association was finally accepted as a full member of the BSO. A large part was doing the European Championship title in Group D of the U18 national team in Treviso (Italy). This succeeded right the first appearance by victories over Norway, Luxembourg and Serbia in the final.
Clubs
Gentlemen
Junior
Ladies
National team
The national team had its first appearance in 1992. Currently, there is according to the official IRB world rankings at number 78 (as of 9 January 2012) of 93 teams.