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 its m ...

in the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

is a moderately popular sport.

Governing body

Rugby union is played in the Falkland Islands under the auspices of the (English)

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...

Dragon Cup

In June & July 2019, the Mount Pleasant Camp RFC took on the Falkland Islands RFC in a best-of-three series for the inaugural Dragon Cup, which the MPC team won. The two teams compete regularly.

History

Rugby was first introduced to the Falkland Islands in the 19th Century, and is always of the

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

variety. Due to the low population of the islands (under 4,000), the islands do not have a proper league system, and games are played on an informal basis. Many teams are from the British military, and occasionally games would be played against visiting ships in past times. In 1939, a group called the "Tabaris Highlanders" arrived on the islands for a brief two months. They were from the

Anglo-Argentine English Argentines (also known as Anglo-Argentines) are citizens of Argentina or the children of Argentine citizens brought up in Argentina, who can claim ancestry originating in England. The English settlement in Argentina (the arrival of Eng ...

community, and were supposed to defend the islands from a German attack during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and were enrolled into the FIDF. Many of this group were rugby players, including Cpl Thomas Dawson Sanderson, who was president of a rugby club. Falkland Islands rugby is relatively isolated geographically and is not integrated into South America, or the Confederación Sudamericana de Rugby, which is the continental rugby body. Rugby union is popular in Argentina, but political and historical reasons have prevented any contact in recent times.

Broadcasting

The Falklands are able to receive some coverage of rugby including the

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

External links

El rugby une
"Un grupo de 34 rugbiers argentinos, entre ellos los ex Pumas Sansot, Branca y Garretón, dio clínicas a chicos y jugó con 8 kelpers y 4 militares ingleses."

References