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| Union | Rugby Israel | |
|---|---|---|
| Head coach | Kevin Musikanth | |
| Captain | Adrian Rainstein | |
| ||
| World Rugby ranking | ||
| Current | 62 (as of 16 January 2023) | |
| Highest | 56 (4 April 2022) | |
| First international | ||
 Switzerland 9 – 9 Israel  (25 May 1981) | ||
| Biggest win | ||
 Finland 8 – 70 Israel (2 May 2009) | ||
| Biggest defeat | ||
 Netherlands 56 – 0 Israel (3 November 1993) | ||
The Israel national rugby union team (Hebrew: נבחרת ישראל ברוגבי) is governed by Rugby Israel, which oversees all rugby union in Israel. As of 24 January 2022, Israel is ranked 60th in the IRB World Rankings.
Their home ground is at the Wingate InstituteinNetanya, Central District, known for its large number of immigrants from English-speaking countries.
The sport was brought to the country by British soldiers during the Mandate era, but petered out after the British left. A wave of immigration from English-speaking countries since 1967 has seen renewed interest in the sport, particularly in areas with large English-speaking populations such as Ra'anana and Jerusalem.
A national league was set up in 1972, and the Israel Rugby Union (now Rugby Israel) formed in 1975. Israel's first international match was away to Switzerland on 25 May 1981, and ended 9–9.
The Union joined the International Rugby Board in 1988, and participated in the European section of the qualifying rounds for the 1991 Rugby World Cup. In a group with Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, Israel lost all three matches, but were by no means humiliated.
In the qualifying matches for the 1995 World Cup, Israel thrashed Hungary 67–8 in the preliminary round, before being knocked out in the Round 1 group stage, failing to score a point in two of their three games.
The qualifying matches for the 1999 Rugby World Cup followed the established pattern, with Israel being knocked out in the group stage, though they avoided finishing bottom of their five-team group by beating Austria.
The same happened in the 2003 WC qualifiers, where they finished fourth in a six team group. In the 2007 WC qualifiers they did not even make it to the group stage, being thrashed 113–7 on aggregate (0–53, 60–7) by Lithuania.
Israel beat Slovenia by 26–19 at 11 May 2009, but lost to Lithuania by 3–19 at 23 May 2009, ending their campaign for the 2011 Rugby World Cup qualifyings. These were the first ever games of Israel to be televised.
In the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualifyings, Israel won Division 2B of Europe qualification, defeating all opponents and being promoted to the play-off round.
| World Cup record | World Cup Qualification record | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | P | W | D | L | F | A | P | W | D | L | F | A | |
  1987 |
Not Invited | Not Invited | ||||||||||||
   1991 |
did not qualify | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 31 | 64 | |||||||
 1995 |
4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 77 | 118 | ||||||||
 1999 |
4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 46 | 73 | ||||||||
| 2003 |
5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 134 | 83 | ||||||||
| 2007 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 113 | ||||||||
| 2011 |
6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 165 | 64 | ||||||||
 2015 |
6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 171 | 109 | ||||||||
 2019 |
4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 135 | 100 | ||||||||
| 2023 |
Automatically eliminated | |||||||||||||
| Total | 0/9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 17 | 1 | 16 | 766 | 724 | |
Below is a table of the representative rugby matches played by a Israel national XV at test level up until 27 May 2023:
| Opponent | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | % Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Andorra |
5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 80% |
 Armenia |
2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0% |
 Austria |
4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 75% |
 Azerbaijan |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
 Bosnia and Herzegovina |
6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 66.67% |
 Bulgaria |
6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 66.67% |
 Croatia |
8 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 12.5% |
 Cyprus |
5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
 Czech Republic |
4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0% |
 Denmark |
5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 60% |
| Finland |
5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 80% |
 Greece |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
 Hungary |
4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 75% |
 Latvia |
3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 33.33% |
 Lithuania |
4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0% |
 Luxembourg |
9 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 66.67% |
 Malta |
7 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 14.29% |
 Moldova |
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0% |
 Monaco |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
| Netherlands |
2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0% |
 Norway |
5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 80% |
 Serbia |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
 Slovenia |
6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 50% |
 Sweden |
3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Switzerland |
7 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0% |
 Ukraine |
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0% |
 Yugoslavia |
3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Total | 111 | 52 | 55 | 4 | 46.85% |
| Matches | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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The following players were included in the squad for the 2021–22 Rugby Europe Conference South 1 match against Malta on 13 November 2021.[1]
Head Coach: Kevin Musikanth
Note: Flags indicate national union for the club/province as defined by World Rugby.
| Player | Position | Date of birth (age) | Caps | Club/province
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yaron Harris | Prop | (1993-06-25) 25 June 1993 (age 31) | ||
| Tomer Bracha | Hooker | (1990-08-28) 28 August 1990 (age 33) | ||
| Nitsan Reizel | Prop | (1997-12-27) 27 December 1997 (age 26) | Tel Aviv Heat
| |
| Thomas Burden | Lock | (1996-10-29) 29 October 1996 (age 27) | Tel Aviv Heat
| |
| Yotam Shulman | Lock | (1995-04-04) 4 April 1995 (age 29) | Tel Aviv Heat
| |
| Yiftach Engel | Flanker | (1994-02-11) 11 February 1994 (age 30) | Tel Aviv Heat
| |
| Ushangi Manjavidze | Flanker | (1998-06-29) 29 June 1998 (age 26) | ||
| Uri Gail | Number 8 | (1996-02-10) 10 February 1996 (age 28) | Beaune
| |
| Omer Levinson | Scrum-half | (1999-07-04) 4 July 1999 (age 25) | Tel Aviv Heat
| |
| Mati Gordon | Fly-half | (2000-01-16) 16 January 2000 (age 24) | Tel Aviv Heat
| |
| Adrian Rainstein (c) | Wing | (2000-09-13) 13 September 2000 (age 23) | ||
| Michael Eli | Centre | (1999-09-13) 13 September 1999 (age 24) | ||
| Idan Eisenberg | Centre | (2000-11-28) 28 November 2000 (age 23) | Tel Aviv Heat
| |
| Gal Aviram | Wing | (2000-08-10) 10 August 2000 (age 23) | ||
| Vitalii Pryimak | Fullback | (2000-05-29) 29 May 2000 (age 24) | ASA Tel Aviv Rugby Club
| |
| Eirad Barkai | Flanker | (2000-11-28) 28 November 2000 (age 23) | Tel Aviv Heat
| |
| Alan Dodin | Fullback | (2000-01-01) 1 January 2000 (age 24) | Tel Aviv Heat
| |
| Yitzhak Hirsch | ?? | (1998-11-20) 20 November 1998 (age 25) | ||
| Maayan Shaked | Lock | (1999-11-28) 28 November 1999 (age 24) | Tel Aviv Heat
| |
| Yahel Rozillio | Lock | (1999-01-29) 29 January 1999 (age 25) | Tel Aviv Heat
| |
| Eitan Humphreys | Flanker | (1990-02-21) 21 February 1990 (age 34) | ||
| Daniel Stein | Fly-half | (2000-10-01) 1 October 2000 (age 23) |
Israel is unique amongst the Maccabiah Games teams for two reasons, firstly it is the only true national team competing, and secondly, non-Jews who are Israeli citizens can qualify for it.
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