As we all know that the game of Rugby is one of the most popular and most watched sports across the world. Not only that we are also aware that large number of countries have their own rugby unions as well. Till now on Sportycious we have discussed about various national rugby unions and their teams as well. But today we are going to discuss about major rugby unions across the globe and also about the global rugby zones in which the nations play between each other. A we are aware that IRB or International Rugby Board (which is now known as World Rugby) is the international authority to run the game globally, but there are various national lever rugby unions as well and we are going to discuss about them only.
IRB was founded in 1886 as the governing body of rugby and by February, 2014 there are 119 rugby unions are registered with IRB internationally. Out of these 119 rugby unions, 101 are full members whereas 18 are associated member countries. As per IRB statistics more than 100 nations play both men and women rugby. The IRB is responsible to hold major rugby tournaments like Rugby World Cup, the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Rugby World Cup Sevens, IRB Sevens World Series, Junior World Championship, Junior World Trophy, Nations Cup and the Pacific Nations Cup.
Apart from above there are six regional associations which are members of IRB and IRB also sees over these six regional associations as well. These six regional associations are…
- Confederation of African Rugby – CAR
- Asian Rugby Football Union – ARFU
- North American and Caribbean Rugby Association – NACRA
- Rugby Europe
- Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions (FORU)
- Confederaction Sudamericana de Rugby (South American Rugby Confederation) – CONSUR
There are many global rugby zones too exist within the frame or IRB and they have the countries involved in them as well.
- Oceana: Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Niue, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
- North America: United States, Canada, Trinidad and Togabo, British Guiana, Barbados, Jamaica and Bermuda
- Europe: All five nations of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Romania, Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Portugal, Sweden and Russia
- South America: Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay
- Asia: Japan, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, China, Philippines, Hong Kong and Bahrain
- Africa: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia