Rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

is a minor but growing sport. For some years, Norway was perhaps the northernmost country to actively engage in the sport and boasted the world's most northernmost rugby club, Oslo RFC,Cotton, p18 which was founded in 1964.Store norske Leksikon

Governing body

The Norwegian Union was founded in 1982, and joined the IRFB in 1993.Bath, p72

History

Norway was the last of the three

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...

n countries to take up rugby. However, amongst the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sw ...

, it is by no means the weakest, Norway is good against smaller teams but is not very good under pressure but they still play well. as it is a more recent introduction to

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

, and has no presence in the other three nations. A major problem though, is the climate, which means that many pitches may be under snow for large parts of the year. Serious interest in the game began in the 1960s. For many years, Oslo RFC was the most northerly rugby club in the world. Stavanger Rugby Club was formed in 1978 and played Oslo in the Autumn of that year, presenting Oslo with a trophy, a rock bit, in 1979, a return match was played in Stavanger; Oslo won both matches.. During the mid-1980s, Oslo RFC's nearest opposition in Norway was

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

, a round trip of 685 miles. Their nearest club was

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 65,856 inhabitants in 2020 with 95,167 inhabita ...

RFC in ''

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

'' a round trip of 310 miles. Rugby has a much longer standing in neighbouring

and

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, which have a combined figure of around 10,000 registered players, and it has been introduced there. Rugby union is also played in neighbouring

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the n ...

, and visitors from there have toured Norway, including people from the British military bases and ships there.

played its first international against

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

who beat them 44–6. At the time, the Welsh fly-half Huw Howells was the driving force in trying to promote the game.

Notable players

* Erik Lund, Leeds Carnegie,

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; Basque also ; oc, Biàrritz ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spa ...

and captain of

* Anton Smith-Petersen, Harlequin F.C.

External links

Archives du Rugby: Norvege

References

* Cotton, Fran (Ed.) (1984) ''The Book of Rugby Disasters & Bizarre Records''. Compiled by Chris Rhys. London. Century Publishing. * Richards, Huw ''A Game for Hooligans: The History of Rugby Union'' (

Mainstream Publishing Mainstream Publishing was a publishing company in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded in 1978, it ceased trading in December 2013.Charlotte WilliamsMainstream to cease publishing 1 March 2013, The Bookseller.com' (Retrieved 30 December 2016) It was ass ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, 2007, )
"Rugby"
on

Store norske leksikon The ''Great Norwegian Encyclopedia'' ( no, Store Norske Leksikon, abbreviated ''SNL''), is a Norwegian-language online encyclopedia. The online encyclopedia is among the most-read Norwegian published sites, with more than two million unique vi ...

{{Rugby union in Europe

Governing body

History

Notable players

See also

External links

References